


It's in the Blood

by JustBukharin



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series), Helluva Boss (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, this is the real deal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:55:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28132773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustBukharin/pseuds/JustBukharin
Summary: Alan couldn't have imagined to be descendant to one of the most terrifying Overlords in Hell. 'Uncle Al' sure is planning to catch up with what is left of his family, and he will not stop until his silly 'great-grandnephew' shows his smile to the world;
Comments: 18
Kudos: 81





	1. Prologue: Omega and Alpha

**Prologue: Omega and Alpha**

**1942**

The building was on fire. A gun was leveled to the approaching red darkness that threatened the man standing before the unknown yet familiar creature. His stance was firm, but his mind was filled with doubts as he prepared to take one last shot with the sanctified pellets.

“ _ **Nestor, my kind brother. Don’t do this, you don’t want to see me angry,** _” The demonic entity calmly addressed, his stretching limps expanding as his form increased the more time passed without the human taking that initiative. Gone was the fear, only the resolution that this was the only thing he owed to his mother and his sibling.

“I’m sorry it came to this, Al,” Nestor muttered, his lips tainted by the blood pouring by the large gash where once his left eye existed. “This is for you and those you killed. I… I love you, little brother.”

“ _ **Don’t-!!** _”

The pellet exploded out of the shotgun, the fragments shredding through the monstrous flesh and tearing the beast apart as it collapsed down into nothingness. Fire rushed all over the room, destroying and ravaging what was left of that long abandoned manor that Nestor once called his home.

Gone was his past family… only the one he had built with love and attention, something his father never cared much for, waited for his return. Bloody, broken, and heavily damaged, the man persisted and, miraculously so, he managed to live through his injuries from that day onward. He died of old age, in his sleep, keeping watch over his children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.

Before he left for the afterlife, he warned all those he cared about of the one he had to let go in the most painful of ways… with a single individual among the bunch of boys and girls that he was tied by blood with that actually heed to his words. But it wasn’t for fear. No, the child wanted to know of the sibling that he loved despite the horrors that he had committed, the deeds he had done in the name of personal gratification.

The child’s name was-

\-------------d-d-d-d-d-------------

**2020**

“ _ALAN!_ ”

“Gah!” I woke up from my slumber in a complete panic. The loud yell coming from mother was so sudden that I quickly rolled and fell off the bed on my back. The wood of the floor creaked at the crash, and I groaned when I realized what was going on.

It was painfully early in the morning, I was still in my sleeveless white shirts and short blue pants, the usual sleepwear. I was staring at the ceiling of my room, the curtains were low enough to avoid any sunlight-induced migraine, and my mother was the one screaming at me at the moment.

“WHAT?!” I yelled back, my hands pressing the sides of my head in an effort to keep my headache under control. Seriously, it was four in the morning, and she had to scream like a fucking banshee instead of knocking at my door. Sure, I told her to wake me up but… never mind.

“ _You’re running late! You should be leaving in an hour!_ ”

Wait, what?

“Why didn’t you wake me earlier then?!”

“ _I forgot!_ ”

Fucking bat. Not even in her late forties and she was already forgetting everything I needed to know. I sighed as I pulled myself off the ground and started to plan out how I was supposed to get everything set before I was screamed at once again.

First thing, bathroom routine. I blitzed around silently and without pause, ditching the idea of trying to get a turn in the shower and going for a minimalist route for the occasion. After twenty minutes of endless procrastination I was out of the bathroom, I swiftly put on the fresh pair of clothes I had prepared the night before.

A dark-gray jacket that was over a light red shirt. A pair of dark-blue jeans, sport shoes with a red theme. I was as smooth as I could get, and it was a pity ladies were never going to learn about my pure awesomeness since I was leaving this town forever. Chicks might be an objective, but I was aiming to get out of that house first and foremost.

After picking up the satchel filled with documents, keys and some snacks for the trip, I proceeded to rush downstairs to face the music one last time. The kitchen was quite cramped considering how small-sized it was. There was just enough room for the stoves, some shelves on the uppermost corners, and a table that could be used to put on plates out of the oven. Right now mom was trying to not burn some eggs, while dad was sitting quietly by the table reading some papers about the last football matches.

“So, I know it’s sudden, but I’ll be going now-”

“What about breakfast?” Mother lamented, glaring at me the moment I paused by the entrance. “Don’t tell me I was right about you skipping meals to get that slim.”

“As if I need to go through that. I got sports and gym for that,” I dryly shot back. The woman was hounding me on every occasion, expecting to see how ‘rotten’ of an apple I really was. It was always her comparing me to that ‘lucky cousin’ of mine.

“Hey...” Father hummed from behind his newspaper, the old man staunchly opposed to read any news from a modern device. “Pay respect to your mother.”

“Sure thing- by the way, I’m leaving, bye,” I waved happily as I rushed outside and bolted towards my bike. The old girl didn’t look any different than yesterday, and it purred like a fighter when I started her engine. Putting on my helmet, I revved the engine some more before allowing the vehicle to take me away from home and towards uncertain lands and mysterious tales of glory.

…

Yeah, I was really giddy about being out of that hellhole. After years of decline, the family just settled down for some crappy places where to live, and I was forced to endure through it all until this very point. But today… was a different day. A good kind of different since, after debating for long with the old man about what to do after I was done with high school, I managed to convince him to allow me to keep the money meant for college as a way to actually ‘take’ the house that was once owned by Great-Grandpa Nestor.

Nobody from the family ever tried to visit it, even though the place was barely looked after ever since the now-dead old timer had perished in his sleep. I was convinced it had something to do about an agreement Nestor had with his kids, urging them to keep away from the property even if the house was given to one of his children or grandchildren. So even though Mother was picked as the one to pick that burden off his cold hands, no plans were ever made to check or even live in that place.

It was a fucking manor, one that should’ve had space even if a family thrice as the one I came from was sent to live there, and yet neither mother nor father ever wanted to give it a proper thought. Which is why, when I offered to take it off the old bastard’s hands so he wouldn’t have to keep track of any documentations from time to time, he eagerly shook my hand and gave me the documents that made me the new owner of that abandoned place.

With college a future I didn’t want to invest into since I had already taken a liking in being a bartender and having the capacities and the experience to do so, I decided that skipping right to the alley of ‘living alone and away from the shitty situation back at home’ felt more appropriate. And better for me so I could get away from any stupid rules that I had to face for years now.

I mean, I could understand a curfew if I was still a minor, but I was nineteen now and I expected some respect after handling my last years at school properly and leaving with some brilliant grades at that. But no, only rules and restraints, and some shouting aimed at me if I tried to oppose that.

And now this was no longer the case since I was going to have an entire manor for myself. The idea was thrilling as I had more than enough coin to fix stuff, refurbish the place and make sure that I could live a pleasant life from now on. It took me about four hours to reach the hometown where Nestor hailed from and… the place was deserted. Not only at the entrance, but even as I drove around and beyond its core. It was like visiting ‘Ghost Town’ to some degree. I could see a couple of bitter-looking elders grumbling about everything they could look or comment against about, but I didn’t linger long enough to get targeted by these senile morons.

Instead, I reached for my destination as I had a lot to check about and because I really needed to see how bad things really were at the manor. Gates ruined, the garden had seen better days and the entire entrance was in shambles. Broken mirrors, ruined portraits, charred parts of the wall covers, and finally graffiti adorning most of the walls all around. There were a couple of cool drawings, but some shit was just fruit of a nightmare fuel experience.

I quietly started taking into account the growing tally of the fixing before I could start living properly in a place like this, and I grimaced when I ended up stopping a little beyond seventy percent of my current funds. It was going to be a few tight weeks for sure if I wanted to avoid getting bankrupted. Still, nothing to truly scoff at. I knew that by the time everything was fixed, I was going to live a King’s life.

Deciding to take a moment off the exploration, I checked on the floor where I remember Great-Grandpa Nestor mentioning that his room used to be. It was a long hallway with just two doors on one side, and another on the opposite one. I paused by the closest door, frowning as I saw the half-ruined tag that was once meant to highlight who owned each of the available rooms.

**Alastor**

“This is… where great-grunkle Alastor’s room used to be, uh? I guess little Al can learn some more about old Al for once.”

I could still remember how much of a pest I had been with Nestor about that part of his past. He spoke so fondly of his younger brother, the man having died of a hunting accident. With the praises there were also some stubborn refusals to add some more about what kind of person Alastor was. What he liked, what he hated, his hobbies, his work, and his personality. All of it was pretty censored by the stern old man, and nobody seemed to know that much about what kind of hunting accident led to his death.

After opening the door, I paused at the unnerving loud creaking noise it made. I glared at the simple thing, shaking my head as I was really trying to not get uneasy in this massive place that was now mine. With proper loving, this manor was going to shine and not be the scary location of some cheap horror game.

The room was… particularly spartan. Most of the furniture had been destroyed by the passing of time or vandals that had once wandered this abandoned house, leaving nothing of the clothes or books that were once there when people still lived in it. There was still a rotting mattress, with bugs and mold staining it, but also an unexpected Ouija board sitting idly on it.

“Yeah, I’m not touching you, not even if someone offered me half the country.” I’ve seen The Exorcist way too many times to know what happens when one plays alone with that. Yet the table looked particularly newer compared to the entire place… which meant that someone had left it in there quite recently.

I tensed up, looking around as my mind recalled how it wouldn’t have been unusual for thieves, or worse, a cult to make a hideout from this old building. The chances of this being true made me even more reluctant to wander on my own. I should call some cops to check the premises… ask for some to remain around so I could get new locks and fix the broken parts of the external gates.

I wasn’t sure that could be requested, but the problem in that very moment was keeping to that room which I already knew didn’t have any sneaky murderer around and plan out a way to get out of the premises without catching any strange group with murderous intentions. Just as I nodded to this idea, I felt something sturdy suddenly slam on the back of my head. I crashed on the ground and… someone in a cloak stood above me, holding a stone that had been on the floor.

“A sacrifice? What are the odds?” He exclaimed in delight.

_**Fuck no.** _

“L-Look pal, there is no need to go for the deep end-”

“You will be just fine! He will certainly approve!” He exclaimed madly, preparing to bash me down with the stone as I brought my arms up to defend against the aggression. And I waited… for a while. But nothing seemed to come my way.

I looked up, worrying that the guy was just waiting for me to show any weakness and attack me while I wasn’t blocking. Instead of that, I found the bastard’s body lifted off the ground and his neck slowly pulling an 180. My jaws dropped at the every so familiar scene as I realized that the Ouija board was trembling insanely at that paranormal event escalated some more. The man’s neck snapped at that unnatural pull and the body fell on the ground and soon a figure materialized out of the board itself.

I stared at the lifeless corpse of the cultist, then up to the one that was surely behind that kill.

His figure was as slim as mine, but what instantly jumped to my attention were his sharp yellow teeth that were shaping a wide smile. He sported a short bob cut with black cowlicks extending from the top of his head, those resembling deer ears. His eyes had red scleras, bright red irises, black pupils. He wore a dark-red coat which is slightly ragged along the bottom, a bright red dress shirt with a black cross on the chest underneath and long burgundy dress pants with matching bright red cuffs.

“ _Oh my, so much blood staining the floor,_ ” The new entity remarked, his voice altered by what looked to be a long microphone. “ _And to think I was really planning to avoid any bloodshed. A pity that I found out that I couldn’t just let you die, young man._ ”

I frowned. “What?”

“ _Oh dear, forgive me I… tend to forget people don’t know me by name in this realm of existence,_ ” He mentioned before leaning his head to the side. “ _My name is Alastor. Pleasure to meet you, unlucky soul._ ”

I opened my mouth, then I closed it, my confusion increasing at this revelation. This man, which was supposedly great-grandpa Nestor’s brother, was a demon. A demon that didn’t look any interested in keeping me alive from the malicious feeling his grin was giving off.

“ _Now, since you have been a dear to keep quiet, I can promise to make your death a quick one and-_ ”

“W-Wait, you once lived there right? You are... Nestor’s younger brother, that Alastor?”

He tensed up at the name, eyes going wide at my words as he leaned closer and… then he started to hum.

“ _And how do you know that name now, young fellow?_ ”

“Well, I’m… I’m your great-grandnephew,” I explained nervously. “Nestor was my great-grandfather.”

Just as I said this, the man hummed again, studying my face with a serious look and then… smiled again. This time more excited than before.

“ _I think I can see some… resemblance. Yes, you have his nose and his jawbone. But the rest is… mine. Surprisingly so,_ ” Alastor commented in pure surprise. “ _Still, what’s your name? Don’t be shy to tell Uncle Al._ ”

“I’m Alan.” And what’s this about ‘Uncle Al’?

“ _Nice to meet you, Alan._ ”

“Uh, likewise-”

“ _Now, this is truly an interesting revelation. You see, I was actually expecting to find an unfortunate soul that I had to personally take care about and send to Hell. But right now I find myself in front of lovely news,_ ” The demon commented happily as he pulled me off the ground and pulled me close in a one-arm semi-hug. “ _One of my descendants, and a smiler from the looks of it. I can tell that you and I are going to have some good time together, Alan. Uncle Al’s guarantee._ ”

I frowned at these words, my headache from earlier this morning slowly returning right to me as I failed to make sense of that madness I was now pulled into.

“W-What is this about… ‘Uncle Al’?”

“ _Granduncle is too long. Plus, I love the ring. I hope you don’t mind, because I will not accept any compromises on that front,_ ” He happily declared, and I frowned at that.

“Well… It was nice meeting you, Uncle… Al. Yeah, really nice,” I nervously replied. “Still, have lots to do. Unpacking things, making sure there are no other criminals, that kind of stuff, really.”

Despite my insistence, he didn’t make way, leaving me stuck in that predicament.

“ _Alan, Alan. I praise you for trying to coax me in letting you leave. I know you will try to destroy the board the moment I’m gone,_ ” Alastor chided mirthfully. “ _But still, I can’t allow you to do that._ ”

“I would never break a possible tie with an ancestor like you… Uncle Al. I swear on my badges as a boy scout.”

I never joined the boy scouts-

“ _You never joined the boy scouts._ ”

...

“Y-You… You can read my-”

“ _Oh no, you’re just easy to read when you're nervous. I don’t blame you, I’m not certainly known in Hell as a trustworthy individual,_ ” The demon admitted. “ _In fact, I made a reputation through my cruelty and my ruthlessness. Which is why I believe you would be safer away from the cult currently housing the manor and right to my house._ ”

“Wait, isn’t that in Hell-!!” Panic swelled as I felt my footing lost as a red portal opened beneath my feet. I managed to grasp at him quickly enough before I fell through it.

“L-Look, I understand the fact you- you want to spare some time with family but-”

“ _No butts,_ ” Alastor interrupted, his smile growing ferocious. “ _Now, I believe you should get set for this new fate of yours. I will wait at Pentagram City, don’t be too late._ ”

And with a simple shove, I was sent to the deepest and crappiest corner within reality itself. I looked down as my body entered the portal, my eyes widening in dread as I saw the height I was falling from and the great fiery pentagram I was falling towards.

_This is hell. I’m in hell. I mean… I thought I was going to eventually end up there but..._

The landing was surprisingly soft despite the height I had fallen from, but I could tell from the pure heat in the air that something about the landing zone wasn’t… alright. It took me just a moment to realize that I had landed between a scary looking fiend with curved horns and an unnerving grin that was holding a silver scythe aimed at me and… a particularly small demon red skin with white freckles on his cheeks.

The short guy had white pointy hair that led up to his curvy black and white striped horns. He also had yellow sclera with what seems to be no irises and only slit pupils. He was wearing a black coat with red buttons and white cuffs, black pants, a white shirt that has a black turtleneck, a large red bow-tie, and fingerless gloves.

What the fuck is going on?

Before I could say anything to the two clearly opposed individuals, the grinning fiend screeched at me and tried to hit me by lifting his scythe up and slamming it downward. Dodgeball’s reflexes kicked in and I rolled out of the way as the weapon got stuck on the concrete floor. The horrible-looking figure tried to recover the blade, but a retaliatory kick seemed to distract him from the task.

Another screech, this time adrenaline made me a little less frightened by the loud unnatural noise. He leaped to strike, but another kick threw him out of the way. I pushed myself off the ground, sprinting to the scythe and pulling it out of the ground as quickly as I could. The fiend noticed what I was doing and jumped again towards me, rushing quickly and making me panic even more. I eventually pulled the scythe, but it was one of the heaviest shit I expected to handle like this. I still didn’t hesitate, and I took a swing at the approaching monster.

The cut was clean, with the weight carrying most of the force behind the blow as the attacker was… decapitated. I stared at his head rolling off and-

_**A loud klaxon caught my attention.** _

It was the short demon, he was now sitting in the driving post of that normal-looking car and gesturing for me to get inside quickly. I didn’t need an explanation as to why there was an hurry, swiftly realizing that the gust of wind coming my way wasn’t natural, but created by the pure pressure of an entire battalion of furious flying fiends soaring towards me. They looked really pissed, and I could tell it had to do with their fallen comrade.

I bolted towards the vehicle, unconsciously pressing a button that was in the staff of the blade and _folding it down in a single circular tube._ I was confused beyond human confusion, and yet I ran, I couldn’t stop trying to try and make sense of anything at that moment if I wanted to live. I punched the tube into my satchel, ignoring what had just happened as I needed to move _or I wouldn’t have survived._

The very moment I jumped inside the side passenger seat, the car rumbled and rushed at a high-speed. Little the guy was, he sure knew how to handle this quick of a pace this early on the driving part. I didn’t comment on it, preferring to silently stare as we managed to move just in time to dodge that swarm. The vehicle was faster, and we were getting out from the reach of these fiends.

Silence, confusion, silence… and confusion.

“A-Are you alright?” The short demon inquired and I… nodded. I couldn’t think of a proper response, and then I started to list up my current thoughts.

“I think. I shouldn’t, but I think I’m… fine?”

“Uh… I don’t have any medicines on me. Do you need anything for that?”

“No.”

“Are you-”

“No, I’m not sure,” I replied with a deep breath. “I… I know this sounds excessive, but I really need a moment.”

“No, no, it’s alright. That was quite crazy,” He muttered. “You killed an Exorcist. _Holy fuck_.”

An exorcist? What? That’s what these things were called?

“...”

I kept quiet, trying to keep my breathing under control as adrenaline ran its course. I was left trembling a little bit, still shaken by what had just happened. It was insane- everything. Cultist, Alastor, Hell, Exorcist and-

“By the way, I’m… I’m Moxxie.”

I glanced back at him, slightly irked that he decided to break that request. I tried to come up with a comeback, but I was just too stomped by it all that I couldn’t think of anything smart. So I settled for the easy backup.

“Alan. I’m Alan.”

A simple greeting. it was the least since the guy got me out of that not-so hot situation.

“Nice to meet you.”

There was silence for a couple of minutes, then he spoke again. And soon I was soon pulled in a conversation where Moxxie started to rapid-fire all of his life out for me to listen to. I was irked by this, but then I realized that it was his coping mechanism to handle the trauma we both just went through together. From the way he started to describe the exorcists and how deadly they were to the denizens of hell, the Imp should have died. And yet he didn’t because I ‘luckily’ landed between him and a clear demise.

The road trip that ensued to get him back home to his wife and his coworkers was a brief one, but one that left me quite enlightened about Hell and what I just witnessed. Overpopulation, hell wasn’t capable of housing that many demons and imps.

_**And now I was there to deal with it all… because of ‘Uncle Al’.** _

**\-----------d-d-d-d-d--------------d-d-d-d-d---------**

**AN**

**A rollercoaster of emotions. Alan is sure going to his lowest… I wonder if he will pull through with how deadly Hell really is.**

**...Yeah, he will. I didn’t let out a ‘future’ scene, so yeah, that’s kind of guaranteed. For a while.**

  
  



	2. Road to a New Home

**Chapter 1: Road to a New Home**

Some things never really change between the world of the living and Hell itself. Sure, this place is meant to be normal world in hardcore mode, less laws, and a yearly visit from murderous angels aiming to kill some demons, but I never expected for traffic to be a legitimate problem even now that I was stuck alone in that car.

Not only was I meant to survive the trip to where my great-granduncle resided, back in Pentagram City, but I also had to handle the fact I was really rusty with a vehicle like a car. Motorbikes? I could make some sweet moves after two years of constantly using one. I used a car just once in my entire life, and it was when I had to pass my driving test. So yeah, not my finest hour… but I guess it could be worse.

Like getting killed by any passing Imp or Sinner since, you know, humans aren’t exactly meant to be wandering Hell for good reasons. Like the fact my presence could potentially make Heaven really annoyed that I was down under her (not Australia) and because I killed one of their guys.

_It was all in self-defense._

I could make an effort with this if the big G was known to hold trials on these matters, but the Bible was quite clear that if He strikes what He dislikes. And I had plenty of reasons to be disliked by God… like the fact I murdered one of his murderous kids with the guy’s own weapon.

Still, I was alone right now and I could only sigh in relief at the fact my face was covered with an old Gas Mask. Despite my curiosity to see what kind of people were Moxxie’s colleagues, the guy was adamant in keeping me away from them. Not because I wasn’t trustworthy, but because my presence, as a human, would have created big troubles for his group. Thus, instead of letting me leave without any rewards after saving his ass (which was more like his saving was a secondary development of me trying to survive the Exorcist), he decided to fish the mask I was currently wearing from a storage room by the ground floor and a business card from the organization he worked for.

 **Immediate Murder Professionals,** or **I.M.P.** for short, was a company made by hitmen for hire. Thinking about it, I was surprised that by saving Moxxie I also got the ear of a group specialized in assassinations if things got too heated for me while around. Sadly, I had no legitimate cash on me to hire their services, and I doubted they were going to give me a free try even with the circumstances that got me in contact with them. It was a messy development that was still helpful, but not in the immediate moment.

Now I was stuck in a car that wasn’t mine, with only a bare idea where my destination was supposed to be. I mean, if Uncle Al is this ‘Radio Demon’ that people have a slight shiver of fear for, then why shouldn’t I be able to find him if I asked around. I was going to terrify some of the denizens, I’m sure of that, but at least I had a place where to start from.

Pentagram City could be considered the Capital of Hell. Technically, there was no capital as Hell was rather vast, with Seven Rings making up the entirety of this ‘civilization’. Pentagram City was one of the first cities to be created, and the ones where the greater self-made Demons, most of which becoming Overlords, lived in. Lucifer rules above all, but there were people having turfs all around Hell and making their power-grabbing moves to try and expand their domains.

I wondered if Uncle Al was among them. Having his own quarters to protect and improve. But the more I considered that idea, the more I could tell he was a simple man with mostly selfish purposes. Not that it was bad, only that it would make for a poor leadership for one of these turfs.

I huffed at the fact we were barely moving with those endless rows of cars clogging the road to the big city I was trying to get to in less than an hour. I tried to look out of the window on the side, only to be forced to retract my head inside when I saw a truck coming running just beside the line of cars I was waiting in. I frowned at the fact that the line on the side was actually… empty. Just some cars coming running really fast, but not much traffic in there.

...

It took me a couple of moments of thinking and staring to realize that the line where the crazy drivers were coming from was the one of those that were running away from Pentagram City… and I had unconsciously taken the lane that was taking me to the Greed Ring. I had been so distracted with my own concerns over what I was supposed to do once I arrived at my destination that I hadn’t realized that I had taken the wrong turn.

It took some inhuman willpower to just not facepalm at that terrible brain fart. I couldn’t just afford any mistakes now that I was without any means of survival beyond ‘Uncle Al’. And I couldn’t be safe if I didn’t find him ASAP. Still, I needed to get back on the right route, else any chances of getting there quickly would end up ruined by my brief bout of stupidity.

_Okay, Alan. Remember what Mr. Mitchell told you to do in this kind of situation._

‘Keep calm, switch marches, make sure there is no distraction or obstacle along the way, and then _run, Bitch, run!’_

Maybe that wasn’t the real advice. I might have forgotten the last bit and added that old line just to summarize the purpose of that risky move. Once I was sure that nobody was coming through that side of the road, the car pulled to the left side and speeded out in the ‘wrong direction’ to reach Pentagram City. People stopped to stare at the madladdery I was committing, but it wasn’t because I was breaking any rules. I had seen some smartasses cutting the line behind me, so I knew it wasn’t really illegal to break common road laws. No, the fact was possibly related to the idea I was going in the most dangerous place in Hell right now.

While it’s true that the extermination had concluded, the insane run to recover any Heavenly Weapon had begun. Many could make a fuckton of money by selling those in the black market, being the only thing that can legit kill sinners without fearing for those to respawn after a couple of days from their death. It was curious what value the scythe in my possession had, but I wasn’t parting ways with it for no real reasons. While I couldn’t use it now, it was my current defensive threat I had at my disposal if shit ended up hitting the fan before I arrived at where Alastor was.

Just as predicted, nobody was sent after me as I took the ‘wrong’ late to get back in the city, but I had to be quite careful to not crash onto any of the vehicles coming towards me from the opposite direction. It was a funny thing to do to pass time, further digest the fact I was in hell, and that my great-granduncle was a demon.

…

That would explain why Great-Grandpa Nestor was so against people living in the old manor. The malevolent spirit of his young brother tended to haunt the place and kill people. Or take them to hell if they are family. I should have seen the lines way before anyone else, having been quite close to Nestor.

Thing is… it’s been years since I last spoke with the man, and the guy was possibly in heaven since Alastor had no clue of where he could be. I would have imagined them both meeting and, after coming to terms about the new situation, bond together once again. Yet none of that was clear from my first interaction with ‘Uncle Al’. I only knew I was the first family member he met after Nestor left to live elsewhere, well away from his old house.

After what felt like a renewed eternity, I was back inside Pentagram city and… the place was in a shittier condition than I had left it in. Some of the streets by the entrance had been demolished, and I was reminded of one of the pictures portraying those old bombing runs made by Zeppelins during the Great War. Not only that, some yellowy substance that was well spread all over part of the road was being collected by some armored demon. At first glance, I was about to exclaim it was odd to see this much yolk staining a battlefield.

Ignoring this detail, I continued to delve deeper in the city until I had the chance to stop and ask for directions. Lucky for me, I found a citizen that was more than happy to help, smiling eye to eye and in a demented way. Maybe he expected me to go and find this place, and get killed by the ‘Radio Demon’ once I knocked at his door.

After resuming my sweet ride, I arrived at my destination in a little less than twenty minutes. The road was packed with small crowds, but none seemingly paid attention to my arrival as I slowly parked near the gates of the old-style manor where Uncle Al should be living. The vibrant red of the walls and the roof, coupled with the massive all-seeing eye set a little above the main door that was looking right at my vehicle as I got off the car, I was quite sure this was the place I was meant to be.

I approached the gates quietly, looking around for anything suspicious… and I saw nobody walking this part of the sidewalk. They preferred to go around it, on the sidewalk beyond the road. And I knew it was far from reassuring since the ‘Radio Demon’ didn’t have a pleasant reputation to be tied to. I really wondered how much of what Moxxie could offer was true and how much was exaggerated for style’s sake.

I stopped, confused as to how I was supposed to get it open since there was no intercom to interact with. If I was to gain Alastor’s attention, how was I meant to…

I glanced up to the grand eye now narrowed at me and I sighed.

“Can you please open? I’m related to the owner of this house.”

…

…

Could it even talk?

If not, then I wasted air and made an excellent moron for the occasion. Still, I wasn’t exactly planning to keep idle and wait for a miracle to happen. Especially now that I was in Hell of all places. So, instead of bitching and whining about it, I decided to be rather bold and make a gamble. Since nobody was looking my way lest risking to be ‘cursed’ or something by the house, I reached for the top of the mask and… pulled it up.

The eye stared as I revealed my face, knowing from what Alastor had said that I had some resemblance to him and… the house seemed to think so itself as the eye widened in pure shock.

“Can you open now?”

Looking up and then down for a few times in a gesture that closely resembled a nod, I saw the gates opening for me. I stared at the scene in quiet surprise, not expecting to be correct with that attempt since… well, I didn’t imagine ‘Uncle Al’ to be quite happy to receive me after leaving me in that crappy situation.

Still, I didn’t linger as I stepped beyond the gates, closing those behind me as I started to make my way towards the now open entrance doors. I was greeted with a quiet atmosphere as I stepped inside, the doors slowly closing behind as I began navigating the place. I quickly spotted a living room, with two couches and a working fireplace. Several heads adorning the wall, most of those from familiar animals… some others I just couldn’t recognize. I hoped those weren’t demons, but I still pressed myself on the real matter.

_Where is Uncle Al?_

The answer to that question manifested when I finally heard some noises and shuffling, approaching the origin of that chaos and eventually entering what looked to be a partly-furnished dining room. At the opposite side of the table, a humming Radio Demon was finishing the preparations for what looked to be Lunch. Alastor was wearing what looked to be a white apron with red details with something written on it.

**Don’t Eat the Cook**

It took me a moment for my nostrils to catch the familiar scent coming from the dish he had prepared and I felt salivating at the nostalgic feeling of good that was hidden behind that food.

“Is that Jambalaya?”

“ _Alan! My dear nephew, how are you?_ ” The deer-like demon asked, seemingly unaware of the crap I had been put through. He sat down at the head of the table, patting the side where the second plate had been set up for me. “ _I thought you would have taken much longer to come. Please, take a seat._ ”

I reached the seat rather slowly, my eyes narrowing at the calm-looking man as I tried my best to find any hints of maliciousness that could imply he did put me in that situation on purpose. I paused just as I arrived at the chair, staring intensely at Alastor.

“Did you willingly put me in danger?” I asked quietly. The Radio Demon paused, turning to look at me with a perplexed look and a wide grin.

“ _You mean if I decided to leave you precisely in the trajectory of an Exorcist aiming to kill an insignificant Imp?_ ” He ‘guessed’ with incredible precision. “ _No. You will have an easier time blaming the fact that demonic spells get rather finicky during exterminations. Angels have something that works to… interrupt the proper working of spells. My only fault is that I barely pay attention when an extermination is happening._ ”

“Yet you seem to know what happened to me,” I pointed out, getting a sigh out of him.

“ _That’s because I was there, making sure that you didn’t exert yourself beyond your capacity. I was happy to see that I wasn’t wrong when I saw that little fire in your eyes, the drive our family was famous and… infamous for_ ,” The demon replied. “ _Still, I wish for you to know that I wouldn’t have taken any risks to have you hurt. Differently from many in his desolate place of souls, you are not expendable._ ”

…

“I guess I will trust you on that. But I will research to see if you mean it about the spell-jammer.”

“ _I have a vast library you can check on whenever you want while you are here. So feel free to confirm your worries or be disappointed by the fact I’m telling the truth,_ ” The grinning man remarked. “ _By the way, I have to ask. Have you ever tried our family’s unique Jambalaya?_ ”

“I… I have to be honest, I don’t think I ever tried this version,” I answered truthfully, slowly taking a seat as I realized how good it smelled this closely. “I believe Great-Grandpa Nestor didn’t remember one of the ingredients that made it stand out to the others so… yeah, this looks and smells amazing.”

“ _I believe it’s because it’s the meat. From what I remember, not many were fans of Venison meat even back in the day,_ ” Alastor recalled, gaining a frown out of me as I decided to give it a try and _Oh My God, my mouth is going to Heaven and my- **OH MY!** _

“Holy shit...” I muttered quietly, eyes going wide as the taste struck me like a truck. A happy truck that was making my tummy want even more of that delicious dish.

“ _Hahahaha, I knew you would have liked it. It’s part of our family’s traditions, and it’s a pity that Nestor forgot about it._ ”

I nodded, quickly devouring most of the meal when a little memory I had driven back while busy on the food managed to return to my mind.

_Wasn’t Alastor considered a cannibal by many?_

…

 _Oh_ _**HELL NO!** _

“This- this is venison, right? No funny surprises, right?!” I asked nervously, terror filling my face as Alastor’s grin widened at my panic. But before I could say anything about it, the man started to chuckle.

“ _Your face is hilarious, my dear nephew. You’re so easy to fright- but I guess I have to blame the rumors behind my cannibalistic tendencies,_ ” The Radio Demon admitted. “ _Although I would indulge in some, I can assure you this is real venison._ ”

“That’s… good. I think- Wait, you are a cannibal?”

“ _Sometimes. When the normal meat isn’t available. But it’s more… about eating those that have the closest taste to real animals,_ ” He admitted. “ _But it’s more tied to the fact that I’m closer to what dishes were once served on the world of the living. Hell has a very limited amount of familiar animals, and the rest taste… particularly unpleasant._ ”

…

“Would you eat humans if you had the chance?”

“ _Oh dear, not a chance!_ ” The Radio Demon refused, looking particularly offended by me for asking him that. “ _As if I would try to eat something so disgusting and filthy. Animals are meant for nourishment, not men or women._ ”

That wasn’t reassuring, no matter how many times I replayed that response in my head. Still, he really didn’t seem up to devour humans, so I decided to give him a shrug and return to my plate. At least this Jambalaya wasn’t trying to murder me.

“I guess… I can ignore that.”

“ _Brilliant! But now I wish to ask you a couple of things. Nothing too personal.”_

I shrugged. “Sure, what is it?”

“ _Do you think someone will search for you when you are missing for long?_ ”

…

I leaned back on my chair, pondering about this. I had told all my friends from high school, those that I knew would have worried about my departure, that I was going to be keeping radio silence with everyone for at least half a year. It was all done for the sake of putting all my attention and energy in getting my plans to work and for no distractions to ruin the need of having my head completely into the project at hand.

Considering how things had gone, it was ironic that now I doubted any of them would have come to check on me, especially because of how adamant I was in making sure they were not visiting at inopportune times.

“No,” I curtly answered. “Nobody is.”

…

“ _Not even your parents?_ ” Alastor inquired, surprised by the answer. “ _I would expect them to be worried sick if you-_ ”

“No. And please… don’t bring them up,” I muttered quietly.

…

“ _Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?_ ”

“There is nothing to talk or discuss about,” I answered with some irritation. “They sucks as parents, and they never gave much of a fuck back at me.”

…

“ _That sounds quite tragic._ ”

“Only the truth, with a sprinkle of annoyance. I believe the only thing they would care about is that I don’t sound too disrespectful and that I somehow outperform my cousin.”

“ _Oh? And why is this cousin of yours so important?_ ”

“Mom is particularly salty because her sister scored a marriage with a millionaire while she got stuck with a football player that was disgraced ten years ago. When Lara started to score brilliant awards when she was just a kid in Elementary School, that just worsened since she wanted me to do better than that.”

“ _Ouch, that sounds like an unpleasant situation to handle as a child._ ”

“It… was,” I sighed dryly. “I was invested about it, but then I just stopped giving a fuck when I was in high school. The whole ‘making mommy proud’ idea crashed and burned by the time puberty hit me and when I started to actually spend a lot of time around Lara at school since we frequented a few school groups. I don’t like her, but I didn’t have any reason to compete with her. And she didn’t seem to care much whenever I sucked or not. She was just… a neutral acquaintance. A very odd one at times.”

“ _Don’t tell me. Your mother saw it as a failure._ ”

“She did. And that was when I just stopped caring to see her actually give a fuck about it. I was a mean to feel ‘better’ rather than her son.”

…

…

“You know, you can stay here for how long you want. The thing is that I might have you do… chores during your stay. Nothing really dangerous.”

I frowned at that strange twist, but I didn’t push for more as I allowed the conversation to shift back to some simpler topics. And from there, the rest of the lunch proceeded smoothly. Alastor continued to entertain me with stories about the time he spent amassing this much power and wealth to his name, but keeping those to a ‘minimum of gory’. And while that label should make it clear that the gore was least present in those tales, I was slightly horrified by the sheer maliciousness of my ancestor.

There was a lack of empathy for others, but it really seemed driven by a form of madness that could have been created when he first arrived in Hell. There was no way that Alastor had been this horrible person back while he was still Alive. Great-Grandpa Nestor would have at least told something about it. Warning people that the man was dangerous and to not be remembered in the good light he used to praise him with. Still, I continued to listen and soon I learned that the Radio Demon had some enemies that had been around for decades now.

The Three Vs Triumvirate was a trio of powerful Overlords that shared the letter ‘V’ at the start of their names. Vox, Velvet, and Valentino, these three had formed a coalition that served as a mean to keep control over the large sources of entertainment in Pentagram City. Alastor was supposedly approached a long time ago by these three, but he decided against allying with them for reasons he decided to not disclose during that conversation.

He seemed really stern when he said that he wanted me to promise to never keep alone by these three at all costs. He also applied extra pressure in having me swear that I had to do my best to avoid Velvet the most, mentioning that he would be unable to do anything against her. That comment left me perplexed as I really didn’t want to know why this ‘Velvet’ was this dangerous compared to him.

Nonetheless, the lunch concluded calmly as Alastor easily spelled the dirty dishes to the nearby kitchen where they began to get cleaned on their own without external help. I could only think that it was somehow tied to the fact the house was partially sentient. Once we were done with the food, he took me for a quick tour of the house, showing me where the most important rooms were. Eventually he took me to my room and we spared a few words.

“ _I will have to leave quite soon. I recently learned of a fascinating opportunity I think I will invest some time into,_ ” He admitted. “ _I will possibly take a long while there, but I will be back by dinnertime._ ”

“And… can you tell me what got your interest?”

“ _A hopeless dream that someone wanted to tell… and she got ridiculed for about._ ”

“That… sucks,” I admitted, and he chuckled. “What?”

“ _That’s what that insignificant sinner said. But still, I believe I have to check and see if something can come out of this. An amusing show for many to admire and see as_ _**it comes crashing down in a glorious dumpster fire.**_ ”

…

“Well... I’m glad that you have a busy afternoon,” I flatly muttered and he sighed happily.

“ _My dear nephew, tomorrow I will spend all day with you,_ ” Alastor assured with a quick nod. “ _I believe you need a proper explanation of how things work here in Hell, and then… we can start discussing the chores. Trust me, you will love it here._ ”

Before I knew it, I was left alone in that massive manor. I knew the important locations around, but I doubted that I was going to go for another tour until the next day. I was slightly… tired. Between handling executors, sneaking from a city to another, and ‘connecting’ with my great-granduncle, I really needed to slam my head in something soft.

The room was thrice as big as the one I had left back at my parents’ house. It was mostly empty except for a desk with a lamp attached to the wall, a large bed and several shelves on the wall that could be used to store books or other objects. Yep, this was my room and… I had no shit on me to place there. It was going to be empty for a long time.

Sighing at the fact I was expected to spend hours of doing relatively nothing, I decided to spend that much time productively. Laying on my new bed I put on my earphones and connect those to my phone. While the device couldn’t have been used for online purposes, I still had plenty of offline music I could play on that moment.

Hours flew away like that, and, soon enough, Alastor arrived particularly late for dinner. I didn’t mind since I could have just prepared something for myself by the kitchen if he decided to skip the promise for some reason. Just like it happened in lunch, I was impressed by what the man had to tell as he finally gave me more info on what caught his attention. He mentioned how the Princess of Hell herself had decided to open up a Hotel that should by all means try to redeem souls and prepare them to be sent to Heaven.

I doubted that was possible, and Alastor was incredibly certain that it was going to fail miserably. And thus provide him with endless entertainment in the form of piling failures stacking up about that activity. I was really annoyed by the fact he was flaking that idea so harshly, but I knew he was correct in doubting that.

Despite my questioning, one thing seemed to emerge out of this. While Uncle Al was willing to invest time on this, he sounded particularly unsure if it would have worked well for me, a human, to work closely with Lucifer’s daughter. That very idea I easily agreed to… but then I had another question I wanted to ask and couldn’t because he was tight-lipped about it.

_**What were those chores he talked about? And why did I feel worried that I was going to hate those no matter what they were?** _

\------------d-d-d-d----------d-d-d-d---------

**AN**

**New chapter! I know many of you would have expected for MC to meet the rest of the IMP, but I thought lengthily about it and… I have an idea on how to introduce them. Mind you, this decision is driven by the logic that while they could spare him for being a human, people like Blitzo wouldn’t give a dime beyond that. A human is a human, and they need to die if sent to hell.**

**They will meet, just not this soon. I’ve planned some action for Chapter 3, so stay tuned! The show has just begun…**


	3. How to Job

**Chapter 2: How to Job**

Breakfast started incredibly calm. Humming quietly, Alastor prepared a simple sandwich for himself, while I settled for a single cup of coffee. Surprisingly enough, the beverage was actually better than any I had tasted until now. Then again, most of the coffee I had tried in my life came from those distributors that were meant to make some quick and easy to consume ones.

Despite the silence, I knew that today was going to be a big day. First day in Hell and… I was actually impressed by the fact nothing bad had happened… yet. From the folded newspaper that Uncle Al had settled on the table, I could tell that yesterday hadn’t been a truly unusual day. Sure, the extermination was annual, but the pure chaos that was the land of the Sinners and the Demons was still there beyond this deadly event.

Brief mentions of buildings catching fire, with the priority of the paper focusing over the recent fight between the anchorwoman for 666 News and… the princess of Hell, Charlotte Magne. I frowned at this last element, remembering that the Radio Demon had mentioned having joined efforts with the young woman about that ‘hotel to redeem sinners’ after seeing her show some ‘interesting light’. I couldn’t recall him mentioning anything about a violent cat-fight between Katie Killjoy and Lucifer’s daughter, but I was quite sure that should have stirred some amusement and fascination within someone like Uncle Al.

Despite his mirthful but modest personality, he already told me that he just loved anything that was new and fresh ‘after almost a century of doing the same thing’. I didn’t blame him for being interested in that. In fact, I was almost relieved that this new thing wasn’t something that was going to kill people. Or at least, that was what I could tell from the way Alastor worded the princess’ priority over redeeming any of her patients. Maybe she would try to ‘kill them’ or actually kill them for the sake of redemption. Lots of crazy people in Hell, and I wasn’t going to doubt that Charlotte was the sanest of the bunch.

“ _By the way, my boy, any trouble sleeping?_ ” The Radio Demon asked quietly, pausing as he gulped down one of the last bites of his meal. “ _Maybe the mattress was too sturdy or you had some issues with your current circumstances?_ ”

I frowned at that hint of concern flashing at his questions, but I calmly shook my head.

“Not really, no.”

“Are you sure? I don’t mind adding some changes to-”

“I slept fine,” I reaffirmed. “Maybe I was a little shaken by the situation, but it wasn’t… bad enough to ruin my rest.”

“ _Oh? I’m… glad to hear that. Remember that if there is any issue-_ ”

“To tell you. I think you told me this twice yesterday.”

“ _And I will keep telling you this if you try to lie to me about this matter. Once again, how are you feeling, dear nephew?_ ”

…Nothing can really go past him.

“I went to sleep… particularly late,” I admitted, but, to my defense, four hours were a legitimate amount of time to get ready for a full day.

“ _And why did you delay a healthy slumber?_ ” He pressed without hesitation, eyes narrowing at me. “ _I’m quite sure I made it quite clear that today was an important day that would have required your utmost attention._ ”

“I know and I’m sorry for this, but I really… needed to know what I was dealing with,” I explained, hoping to make my point clear. “New place, a deadly one at that- I need to know what I’m supposed to face.”

“ _Hmm, so you skipped some bedtime because you… read a couple of books?_ ” Alastor inquired, and I nodded. “ _And what did you focused into?_ ”

“I wanted to know how the governance of Hell works. I skimmed around the tiny details of Demons, Imps and Sinners, focusing mostly on the Princes, the Princess and… Lucifer.”

“ _Oh yes, Mr. Magne is particularly… important to learn about. A very crafty man, but one you shouldn’t fear until you end up meeting him._ ”

“He would kill me?”

It was the easiest route I could think about, but there was a strange glint flashing from the Radio Demon’s eyes at that guess.

“ _Maybe, or maybe do much worse than that. He is the owner of Hell, and, as such, he is pragmatically responsible for quite a couple of unpleasant but effective affairs that many citizens of this realm still find horrifying,_ ” The man elaborated. “ _The worst being the chances of him letting you turn in a mindless demon for him to control by waiting for Hell’s own influence to shape you into one._ ”

That sounded unpleasant. But among that set of worrying words that were meant to deter me from ever approaching the head honcho of the Underworld, my attention quickly shifted onto a detail that I just couldn’t ignore. And I was even more concerned by this very discovery.

“What about… demonization?”

“ _You would turn in a demon in a normal circumstance if you lived here beyond a full week, yes. But… I already have a solution to this. Something that I wanted to give you yesterday, but I just couldn’t find as quickly as I wanted with how intense that afternoon was,_ ” Uncle Al explained, bringing up to the table a… talisman of sorts. It was made of a red-colored metal, and just as he passed it to me to hold, the pendant’s laces swiftly moved and wrapped neatly around my lower arm, just slightly above my wrist. At first I thought it was tied like this permanently, but just as I moved to unfasten it, the lace complied to my need.

“ _I can tell you thought it was a permanent thing. While many demons of my caliber would do so to gain an undeniable favor out of someone, yours can be removed at your own leisure,_ ” Alastor continued. “ _The enchantment that keeps it tied in such a manner is elaborated in a way that it answers only to your commands. So don’t fear for any tricks or surprises, you aren’t one of my… associates._ ”

“Uh… thanks?”

“ _You are welcome. The pendant is also meant to keep working until you… don’t make use of magic. It can hold if you end up needing to use a low-tier spell or two, but I wouldn’t risk it with a strong one if I was you._ ”

I shrugged. “Never been the Wizard in any D&D game, so I guess I’ll be fine.”

From the brief frown he displayed, I could tell he didn’t catch my reference, but still shrugged it off as a simple pop-culture one from my time.

“ _Perhaps we should also start moving,_ ” The Demon pointed out, standing up from his chair. “ _We still have a long day ahead of us and we also have to check another place before going home_.”

I frowned. “Another place?”

He chuckled. “ _It’s a surprise~._ ”

I was really confused by this ‘addition’, but I didn’t question it much since I had other things to worry about. Once I had my mask put on, Alastor decided to also give me a pair of gloves to properly hide away any hints that I was a human. Albeit there wasn’t a written rule about killing humans on sight… Well, the inhabitants of this place were really keen to either capture or kill any wandering Hell. Either to get a minion to do their bidding in the living world, to eat their flesh or to use their blood to fuel dangerous rituals.

Yep, I was staying hidden until I was out of here.

Once we were out of the house, we started to walk around a couple of blocks from the manor. We never went too far as the main priority was a single one, getting the tributes of those enjoying the Radio Demon’s protection. Turfs were simple to manage if one knew how to handle a good dose of giving fear and ‘care’ to those under you. Hell wasn’t up for kindness, at least not of the kind that would leave a room for some exploitation of any fool interested in that kind of stuff. Gritty, violent, Hell was the place where cruelty was legitimately needed by those that rule over others.

So we went around to collect the money expected from Alastor’s protective influence over some of the establishments all around while also giving me the chance to introduce myself. It was at that moment that I finally realized what he meant with ‘chores’ the day before. Uncle Al wanted me to be the one to wander around and do this, and I was surprised when he also added that he would send me to do errands for him. Nothing overall dangerous… but we were still taking on tasks that were particularly complicated for someone like him, an overlord, to do because of how many there were.

I wasn’t exactly meant to take on the most, but he expected, rightfully so, that I could face without any major issues bringing letters, messages, or objects to friends of his. And I really hoped that these friends were different from the ladies we spotted in the middle of the road near the manor. Four women that looked particularly ghoulish. We found them busy devouring a demon they had ambushed early on, and they gave a surprised look when Alastor introduced me to them as well.

I don’t know if the shared expression they gave to me was meant to highlight an interest tied to sexual things… or if they actually were planning to trap me and eat me too. From the way the Radio Demon would describe them once we were well away from their proximity, they weren’t going to harm someone tied to him.

“ _T_ _hey wouldn’t want to see me… upset._ ”

I decided to trust him in that regard since I saw many of the ‘clients’ to his protection service being particularly frightened by him. And if I knew anything from the rumors and the way overlords were depicted in the books about Hell’s government, then I was sure Uncle Al was packing some unseen power that could potentially damage this side of hell in a single snap of his fingers.

Four hours went out like this, with the time for lunch soon approaching as we made our last stop to the final shop of the area. We were turning the corner when the man decided to begin a conversation.

“ _You know, I don’t believe I have asked you this yet. But… did Nestor ever bring up anything about what I used to do when I was… alive?_ ”

I blinked as I studied the unexpected question, pondering about that very eventuality. Great-Grandpa never went into detail about what Alastor used to do when he was still a human, only saying that he decided against pursuing the family’s career of hunters. At least, through the usual customs. He would hunt alone, his catches mostly unknown since he kept those away until he was done preparing those to be sold. It was a weird take, but one I could actually understand. Hunting with others meant handling the kind of company one that could easily turn distracting and unpleasant at times.

I could still remember when I checked at the local shooting range a year ago. I had been rather interested in trying guns before that point, but I never had much of a chance with how stingy the pocket money was before I started doing some odd jobs. The moment I was financially able to take that opportunity to test out my curiosity… well, I was surprised when I liked using guns.

The thrill of taking aim, making sure to keep track of the trajectory between gravity and wind. The noise of the bullet traveling through the rifle’s barrel and swiftly… reach for the target’s vital points. It was kind of a side-hobby, one that I really never gave much attention to.

“Not much. He would only say that you were… a unique hunter.”

He didn’t answer at first, surprised by my choice of words. He looked confused, suspicious even as if I had said something foul to him. Ultimately he just nodded, his humming and smiling resuming as we ended up making our way back to the manor’s entrance… before starting to leave the area altogether.

“So, we are going to this ‘place’ you mentioned?” I pointed out and Alastor nodded.

“ _I believe you need some… ‘better clothes’,_ ” The Radio Demon finally replied, making me frown in the process. “ _The place itself isn’t the fanciest, sadly, but something that will give you enough to work from this day on._ ”

“And… this place is?”

_**Uncle Al merely smiled, and I knew that I was going to regret where we were going. I don’t know why, but I could feel he was up and ready for some amusement with my soon-to-come reaction. And he wasn’t wrong.** _

\-----------d-d-d-d----------

From the very moment we entered Stylish Occult, I knew that this was the Hellish version of Hot Topic.

The clothing section was full of stuff that ranged from goth to metal-lover. There were just so many pieces to pick up and so little that really fancied my attention. Nothing against the people that loved this, but I really had a different taste in terms of fashion. And the fact that there was a section dedicated to taxidermy didn’t really help me ignore the overall unsettling atmosphere this shop seemed to have.

At least nobody was looking at us as we browsed… or at least, I believed that to be the case. There were more than enough weird people around that I doubted Alastor was meant to catch any attention from the other customers.

Much to my relief, that was mostly the case. Demons and Imps wandering around really didn’t care if someone like the Radio Demon was browsing the place, either because they were too numbed by the vibe this shop was into, or because there was nothing that would make them assume he was there to murder anyone.

Still, as much as I was glad of this lovely detail, I found myself struggling over the fact I really didn’t like any of the pieces in display. Hats, shirts, ponchos- like seriously, why did he take me here of all places if I gave no indication about me liking this shit.

“Uh… Uncle Al?”

“ _Yes, Alan?_ ”

“I don’t want to ruin the moment, but can I say that I don’t like this place?”

“ _Aw, but you haven’t even seen the coats there,_ ” He said while aiming his cane at the area filled with black coats. Only black coats. “ _Are you sure about it? I heard ‘cool kids’ love Stylish Occult._ ”

“Not all ‘kids’,” I curtly admitted, looking away, trying to come up with a continuation to that and… stopping as the deer-like Demon left my side to check on the damn coats. I was about to call him on that, to stop him from leaving me at my own devices in a shop I really wasn’t liking and… he was out of my reach. And I really didn’t want to get loud and attract any attention.

So I did the smartest thing I could think up on that moment while Uncle Al was busy putting me in an awkward situation, and that was… faking the fact I was browsing around the place. I turned to the closest shelf, acting as if I was really fascinated by these… beanies.

_I’m really annoyed._

But as soon as I thought that I was away from handling anything unexpected and capable of furthering the awkwardness I was really trying to escape from, I ended up looking around and staring for a while at the closest individual in that moment.

She had a dog-like muzzle with a dark black nose. Her eyes were with red sclera and white irises, her white fur ‘tainted’ with some gray patches around her shoulders’ area. Behind her, a big bushy tail that matched with voluminous gray hair. She was wearing a blue crop top that was tightly holding onto her modest-sized rack, its strings were shaped to form a star and resemble an inverted pentagram to hold the entire thing up. Then it was the turn of her shorts, the lower body fabric having a crescent moon cut on the right side. She was also donning a black choker that had some pointy spikes, and some black toeless stockings that showed how her feet were more canine than humanoid and thus unable to fit in normal shoes.

Her sight was initially aimed at her phone’s screen, yet she soon picked up that someone was looking at her as she glanced around and… noticed my presence.

“The fuck are you looking at?”

I blinked at the hellhound, surprised that she was quick to regal me with a snappy remark. For some reason, I could see her personality fit well with her fashion. Not that I was judging her or anything, but she did fit being the bitch of the unfunny kind. Still, not the first individual I had to handle with that kind of personality, so I swiftly switched with a calm but effective way to survive this unplanned encounter.

_Time to beat this Tsundere through the power of blunt confidence!_

“Right now? Someone.”

Her eyes narrowed at my response, slightly surprised that I rebuffed her that easily.

“Is that so, you fucking pervert?”

“Never said I was looking at you that way. Just looking around, it’s a big place,” I quickly deflected the insult. “Very interesting too.”

“What? Are you more into the fancier shit or what?”

“Nah. I’m a sports guy. Not a complete one but… yeah,” I said while shrugging. “My uncle thought it smart to take me to the place where the ‘cool kids’ come to buy their clothes from.”

She snorted. “My… dad is trying to pull the same shit. He said someone he is fucking has a daughter that love this shop. Dunno why he thought it would have been a good idea to take me here.”

That’s an… interesting reasoning. Then again, this is Hell.

“I guess the woman’s kid just loves goth or metal stuff. Everyone has their tastes.”

“Who ever said my dad is fucking a chick? Ugh, let’s just say the guy can be a pain in the ass to stomach at times.”

...Wait, what?

My silence was taken as a reason to just switch the topic back on the main issue right now. The hellhound hummed, looking back on her device’s screen before speaking up again.

“Sadly, I’m still not into this shit.”

“Me neither, but I… really need a new pair of clothes,” I admitted with a sigh. “Lost my clothes when coming to Pentagram City. I was… jumped by some unpleasant individual.”

“You seem fine. Did you kick his ass?”

“He got bitch-slapped by my uncle before I could do anything about it.”

“Sounds like you are a little wimp.”

I frowned. “And you are a fucking bitch.”

Instead of looking offended by that, she smiled ferociously. “Oh really?”

“Yep.”

…

She grinned. “I’m Loona.”

…

“Alan.”

“So, what’s your fucking preference on this kind of crap?”

I wasn’t exactly sure how it happened, but something of a connection seemed to form through that brief interaction. Some would generally see a violent escalation to the insults, yet I was surprised when the girl just backed off all so suddenly. I was really perplexed at first but… then I realized why she did that.

Loona had been testing me to see what kind of person I was. Not the best way to gauge one’s personality, but her examination came in the form of seeing how ‘ballsy’ I was with my own capacity to insult others and not back away from it. That seemed to get her to somewhat respect me, even just by a little bit.

We ended up spending a couple of minutes picking stuff for each other, with the girl picking for me a pair of interesting gloves while I suggested she still give it a try to a few shirts that closely resembled the one she was currently wearing. While we were taking our time exchanging insults too while we could, the entire bizarre discussion came to an end when the hellhound was called out by an… imp. The guy looked taller than Moxxie, but still particularly shorter than Loona. I could only see his horns when he called for her to come to him. Huffing and offering a quick ‘catch you later’, Loona was gone as quickly as I found her.

_An interesting individual for sure… one with a butt that sure looked lovely as it kept on swinging as she retreated with her father._

Alastor came back empty-handed, but he smiled widely and gave me a quick nod as I settled for two bland black shirts, two jeans, two black pants, and a pair of reinforced gloves. The fabric of the gloves reached well beyond my wrists and stopped before my elbows, effectively covering for my arms in case my clothes were damaged.

The price was also pretty affordable since there was a sale with this kind of cheap stuff, making it even cheaper and easy to sell to the various customers. Once we were done with this shopping trip, we made our way back to the manor and we spent the rest of the day either conversing over some random topics, or about the Hotel the Radio Demon was supposed to check on by the next day, or with Uncle Al teaching me some more how Hell really worked away from the government’s careful eyes.

It was an enlightening experience that left me mostly fascinated by how vast this realm really was, now realizing that it was far bigger than I thought it was with my first impression of it. Dinner came and soon I was given a proper explanation to how I was supposed to spend the next day without Alastor around.

“ _Y_ _ou will just check the turf. With the ‘taxes’ already recovered, you don’t have much to do for now,_ ” The Radio Demon muttered quietly, stealing a tiny bite from the half-devoured venison steak on his plate. “ _Get this opportunity to get accustomed to these streets. You will need to have a clear idea of how you are supposed to work in this part of the city, how to fight in it if something awful comes to be._ ”

I gave him a slow nod at that, understanding where he was coming from with this. If I wanted to do a fine job while he was away and busy with this hotel situation, I needed to know the streets I needed to give a careful watch over while he was away.

With that in mind, I decided to actually go to bed really early and… hope to get enough sleep hours to be ready for a really difficult day. I wasn’t a kid, but I really didn’t want to face the chances of being attacked on my first day without Alastor around. I needed to get myself something that could help me that wasn’t just the scythe. The thing was too heavy for me to handle beyond a single swing, and I needed something that packed a good punch.

A handgun or a shotgun could work beautifully. Both even more.

_**Still, I decided to leave this bit for tomorrow and ask Uncle Al for any help in that regard. Yawn leaving my lips as I burrowed my head onto the pillow, I found sleep way easier than the day before and… I would soon learn that the dreams were now the issue for my rest.** _

\----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d--------

_**Two children, they were alone in what looked to be a familiar kitchen. I had seen this place before.** _

One was sobbing, slightly shorter than the other and… wearing a pair of round glasses. The other one was a little bulkier, but also had a familiar jawline and nose. Both were wearing similar clothes- white shirts, dark-red pants that stopped by the knee and a pair of brown shoes.

“Nestor, please! I swear I didn’t mean to break the cookie jar,” The younger sibling muttered nervously, tears already forming by his eyes as he tried and failed to push the guilt and pain back. The older boy stared nervously back at his brother, worried as the child held his left palm closed, trying to hide away the noticeable cut bleeding on there.

The eldest sighed, the big decision of taking the blame evident in his face and… soon, a woman that I recognized as their mother decided to finally enter the room. Her head was for some reason darkened. It was like a blurred censor, but with darker shades meant to further hide away her face. She was tense, annoyed even, but her concern was undeniably the strongest element visible in her face. She took a moment to understand the situation, then Nestor spoke up and… she sighed, as if this wasn’t the first time this happened.

 _I expected to see a slap from the calm-looking woman. So I was incredibly confused when she outright punched Nestor_.

The boy crashed down, holding his cheek as he recoiled from the strike. The mother didn’t seem to care that she had gone overboard with that punishment, her attention utterly taken by the need to aid her youngest son, and to give him proper medical help.

Nestor didn’t speak or react to this development, merely staring at his mother as she blatantly favored her youngest and disapproved of the eldest, a dejected glint flashing painfully through his eyes and…

_Alastor continued to weep through the night, this time blaming himself for hurting his big brother by not taking the blame. But the pain… it was unpleasant. He preferred to be cut rather than have his mother hurt him that much. So horrible, so unfair… but he had to smile. Or his brother was going to feel hurt even more if he realized that his efforts were all in vain._

As my mind was overwhelmed by the sheer sadness coming from the frail-looking boy, I ended up pulled out of my dream, my attention brought back to reality as I snapped up with a panicked yelp leaving my lips.

**I woke up, shivering and sweating over what I had just seen. My mind was wracked by the confusion, and my tired self just couldn’t bring itself to find answers about that strangely ‘realistic’ dream I made.**

_I could tell one was Alastor, the other was Great-Grandpa Nestor… but why didn’t Great-Grandpa say anything about this?_

_**Despite my curiosity, I eventually fell asleep again, this time spared by the bizarre dream I found myself into.** _

\------------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d----------

**AN**

**100 Follows in FFN? Holy smokes. Still, big milestones in the other sites- I’m really thankful.**

**Still, some explanation when I said in previous AN that he wouldn’t meet IMP this soon and yet he met Loona. One thing is a single character, another is the group as a whole. He will interact with her some more, but her next appearance will not happen for a little while.**

**...Also, Merry (Late) Christmas!**


	4. High on Friendship

**Chapter 3: High on Friendship**

“Are you sure you don’t require anything at the moment, sir?”

I sighed, having heard this very question way too many this fine morning. “It’s alright, Reginald. I don’t need anything right now, but thank you for asking.”

The Octopus-like Demon nodded back as he returned to finish cleaning the last glasses as his shift was about to start. The beginning of my workday was planned out to be as smooth as it could get here in Hell. Reginald’s pub was the only activity that opened up at this early hour, and thus it gives me the chance to get set with the first steps of my patrol. The schedule was fairly… simple. If I ignore the fact I wouldn’t be able to hang around for more than a couple of minutes all over the activities, so no much of a pause for a solid six hours.

Not the worst, but potentially the most annoying element behind this job. With Uncle Al gone to deal with his newest duties as a manager for a hopeless hotel, I was left with only a single viable way of defending myself from any aggression.

The revolver that Alastor recovered packed just enough punch to cripple or kill a low-tier demon if aimed properly. The sweetest element that made the little bundle of doom important wasn’t the power it could muster, but the fact it didn’t require any ammo. The curse forced upon the gun tied it to Hell’s natural presence of magic all around, the energy channeled in the chamber and creating bullets that could be easily used by me without having to use that magic myself.

A nice addition since I doubted anything less than that would have worked properly against any threats that could come my way. Once I was sure it was time for me to start my patrol, I bid Reginald a good day as I started to wander around the streets in a calm and inconspicuous way. I didn’t need to gain any attention to myself as I wandered around the place. People already knew that I was somehow tied to the Radio Demon, but I knew better than strutting and catching any unpleasant issues on myself.

Nonetheless, the walk was kind of fun. If you ignore some groups of cannibals around tearing onto unlucky bastards nearby. I was frightened by those little instances, but they seemed to remember well enough who my boss was. And why they shouldn’t come any close to me without my permission. And I wasn’t open to any conversation with any of them.

Instead, I entertained some quick discussions with the few owners of activities all around to see if any needed any help with anything within their establishments. Many were respectful enough to either comment about anything suspicious or to ask some suggestions about expanding their business within the turf, while a small margin was showing me some respect through fear. Of my uncle. It was like I was in a genuine position to exert fright by merely standing around with how I was dressed. I didn’t mind, like… I really didn’t. The only thing I needed is to get as popular as Alastor and then… the circle of bad omens would just be complete.

Eventually my stroll took me to a place I had just checked barely as Uncle Al seemed to be upset by merely wandering inside it without trying any of the many features in it. The small-sized casino within the turf was the primary source of income that went to the deer-like Demon’s pocket. People here, just like they used to back in their previous lives, were keen to burn their savings in that machine of greed and hopelessness.

The reason why I was keen to visit this place wasn’t tied to any addiction I might have about gambling. I used to barely try anything related to luck, mostly because I was always the lucky sob when it came to gambles. I couldn’t exactly tell why, but if it was a card game, something that has to do with some absurd odds, I would somehow pull through and get to win some serious money out of it. There was a time where I thought about testing it with a trip to Las Vegas, but I backed off that idea the moment I read about the cruel laws of casino’s enforcers.

But now that I was in Hell with a limited amount of coin, I decided to be a cheeky young man with ambitions of getting rich from a very disappointing pocket money from my ‘Uncle’. It took me ten minutes to gain ten times of what I came inside with, and I left the small casino with a satisfied sigh, knowing that I could potentially check on it again later on when I was free.

I had to be careful, or someone was going to pick up my curious case of good luck about this kind of stuff.

With the patrol resuming, I swiftly checked over another street filled with establishments that were tied to the Radio Demon. People were happy, there were some normal grievances about drunk morons making trouble, and things were… just fine.

And then that came to an end when I ended up becoming an unplanned spectator of a kidnapping attempt. The young woman, which managed to keep a surprisingly bubbly behavior as she tried to get away from a dozen of Imps.

“L-Look guys, I’m sure there is a simple mistake, I know Val and he would never, ever come to take me so suddenly. We’re friends, you know~?”

Her appearance and clothes were… bright. It was really odd considering how Hell didn’t seem to house any degree of this kind of ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’. At least not in such a combo. Her big fluffy hair was supported by a hairband. She wore a semi-formal suit with sleeves that extended to the palms of her upper set of hands. Her hands were held within striped gloves. I was quick to notice that she also had four arms and two pairs of legs. A spider demon? I felt convinced of this when I moved on to the three spots under her big eyes that closely resembled the amount of eyes a normal spider has.

“Ah!” One of the imps snorted while the others snickered. “You really think that just because your brother is a good slut to Valentino, he would just let you off if you start making debts in his turf? I bet he would be incredibly pissed when he learns you tried to run away from his enforcers here in the Radio Demon’s turf.”

“W-Well, isn’t he going to be pissed that you chased me down here? He would surely make many terrible things- worse than he would with me since well, he found about the debts. _Shit_.”

“As if the Radio Demon is going to cause any problem. It’s your fault for making this mess, and he is known to be a deal-maker. Why would he go out of himself to protect a troublemaker like you?"

She struggled, the imps laughing loudly as I tried to _not make this_ _**my problem-** _

_**And yet her upset face reminded me of one I had seen many years ago. I could feel the cold sweat, the shivering hands over the simple handgun as I aimed it down to an… unknown attack. And- And-** _

And I already had the first bullet striking at one of the pricks holding onto her multiple arms. A clean headshot that killed the guy and freed put a stop at that ongoing kidnapping. The group of morons turned in my general direction, their boss glaring at me.

_What the hell was that all about, PTSD?!_

“Who the fuck are you?”

I gritted my teeth at the fact I wasn’t going to be spared this kind of confrontation. I had only a chance to avoid getting overwhelmed, and I knew that the only way to get out of this without that happening was to… bullshit my way out. So I decided to take the very approach Alastor told me to use when handling this kind of issue while also keeping a degree of similarity with his manner of speech.

“Apologies, pals. I didn’t mean to ruin the posse you were running. I hope my lucky shot in the dark didn’t mess with your jolly combination,” I muttered with a faux mirthful tone, gaining a snarl from the Imps.

“You think you are funny with that stupid act, you piece of shit? How about we take you with us and turn you into a fine whore?”

 _That really isn’t nice. I can’t help but really feel…_ _**disappointed** _ _._

“Now, now, **now** , Isn’t that **upsetting** ?” I commented with a hint of sadness, and a sprinkle of irritation. “I mean, I don’t wish to be the party-pooper of this lovely day, but I can’t help but find your aggression particularly **displeasing.** ”

Something was… off about my throat. That and my sight was growing dizzy, blurry. Whatever was going on I just… couldn’t help but… **smile**.

“Who the fuck are you?” One of the short jerks muttered and I sighed quietly.

“My name, **you vertically-challenged fiends** , is Alan,” I **happily** introduced myself. “And today I have to be the one that puts an end to your **amusing** run since, you know, are messing in the turf of someone that is sadly not here to handle this **tricky** matter. But here is the conundrum- you see, my uncle might be busy with this **exciting** **endeavor** called Happy Hotel, but you might find me more than available to concern myself over this issue. Hello, my uncle is the Radio Demon.”

…

“W-What?”

“No, the question isn’t ‘what?’. You should be asking about ‘how do I get out of this without getting killed in the process?’.”

“Y-You are shitting us-” The closest imp rebuked weakly and I sighed even louder than before.

“ **Oh dear** , as if someone would come up with such a **funny way** to get stuck in a deadly endeavor with Uncle Al,” I lamented dryly. “You sure fail to catch on the fact that the Radio Demon really don’t like people that fake themselves as family. You see, family can be important. At times. _**I really love Great-Great-Grandma’s recipe for Jambalaya.**_ ”

“Look, how about we just… get the girl away and-”

“No, no. You misinterpret the simple message I just voiced. The girl, right now, is no longer your problem.”

“W-What? You- Valentino-”

“I bet he will still be pissed if he realized that his henchmen can’t even intercept a simple individual slipping out of his turf. I bet he would still kill many of you to, you know, **leave a message** ,” I interjected calmly. “So, here is the _**simple**_ deal. You take the least dangerous route by ‘failing to spot the girl’ and you allow others to take on the charge of investigations. **He might be in a forgiving mood**. Maybe he will just forget you even exist. But… bring up inefficiency by risking war with a fellow Overlord… **That would be bad.** _ **For you all.**_ ”

“W-We can’t just-”

“You can. Because I told you so,” I muttered quietly, shrugging at this silly exchange. “ **Death** or Death. Your choice, **your grave**.”

…

_Are they actually believing that?_

…

_They are. Look at them, crapping in their own pants._

The imps seemed to really buy it, bailing on the task as I finished laying out a couple apocalyptic scenarios they could have ended up falling into if they had taken the bright-looking sinner with them. I took a moment to sort out _what the heck had just happened there and why my throat was hurting so badly._

One moment I was bullshitting myself out of a tight spot I put myself into, and then I felt _it all coming back to me full force. Like a possession, but from within._ I tried to make sense of this event, but before I could be granted the much-needed silence and privacy to do so, I found myself glomped into something really soft. And very intimate.

“Gosh! That was so cool!” The girl exclaimed loudly as she squeezed my masked face onto her boobs… and fur. “You were like ‘I am a badass and this is my land, you bitches’ and they were ‘Daddy no’-”

“Please, **never** use that reference ever again while I’m around.”

The girl pouted, pulling me out and showing me how overly-acted her reactions were right now. I frowned in confusion at her excitement, but I was also weirded out by her… lack of real uneasiness to what had just happened.

“But why not? You were so cool- and since you helped me, I hereby declare you my friend. Molly’s friend!” She proclaimed mirthfully. “By the way, I’m Molly. Nice to meet you, Alan!”

… “Likewise?”

“Yes, yes- now, since we both made friends today, I believe it’s time to celebrate. I heard that there are some distributors around and I would go for a couple of Mollies. Mollies for little Molly, hehe~. _Let's go!_ "

I frowned as she suddenly bolted away while holding a familiar… wallet.

_Wait, is that my-_

“HEY! Stop and give back my wallet!”

By giving chase to the giggling spider-like sinner, I was eventually given an answer about how she was managing to pull so much energy for this entire stunt after what had just happened. If the unflattering trail of her buying a non-negligible amount of ecstasy was to be taken into account, I might have to come to accept the fact I saved a drug-addict.

A drug-addicted spider-like girl with a penchant in messing with anything or anyone around her that was currently sticking by the fact we were friends with how ‘we combined each other's efforts in getting so much from hell’. In Molly’s case, the idea of buying garbage, in my unplanned intervention, the coin needed to get all this shit out of the shops all around.

From a legitimate perspective, she was effectively robbing me of my stuff, but she soon did something really interesting the moment I finally managed to catch up to her. We were in an alley, still within the Radio Demon’s turf when she stopped and turned around ‘surrendering the bountiful treasury of good and fun’ that had been emptied in that crazy shopping spree.

“That was really fun, Allie. How about we do this again… tomorrow? Or even the day after that one?” Molly quick-fired without hesitation. “Still, I believe I owe you a lot. I believe it’s… this much?”

I took a moment to stare up, still bent as I tried to catch some rest from that mad chase. I was confused as I saw a fuckton of paper money being held for me to reach out. I picked them and counted and… it was the right amount of what had been inside the now empty wallet.

“How?”

“Well, I had that same amount of green in my purse, so I just decided to tease you a little bit by showing you around, Allie. That’s how friends behave, right?”

“I… I think? But then why didn’t you just pay… Valentino?”

“Oh, Val isn’t a friend. He is a bastard. So I treat him as one,” Molly explained calmly, ignoring that the answer actually did nothing to explain what she was talking about. “Also, you are cute and got a lovely behind.”

… “What?”

She giggled, leaning forward and slamming a quick peck on my mask, right where my lips were.

“Keep being cute, Allie. I will see you soon~!”

She walked away just like that, leaving me confused, confused and… confused.

_Did I fail to make my confusion clear over that immensely confusing situation._

_**Like, what the fuck was that!?** _

\------------d-d-d-d-d---------

“So… I think I made a friend today. I think.”

Alastor paused mid-munching, giving me a confused frown as he digested what I just said.

It was lunchtime, my shift was over and I was free to think and cope with what unfolded mere hours ago as I enjoyed a filet mignon by the table. Not the best dish to make with a tired mind like mine was right now, but it was still edible food that kept my stomach far from gurgling annoyingly.

“ _Is that so?_ ”

I nodded, trying to come up with a good way to elaborate what really I had to ask him. Like seriously, I thought the gem was meant to keep me from being influenced by Hell’s energy, so why did I act like that? Could it be tied to a possible feature of the gem I was unaware about?

“Yeah. Some men from… Valentino were trying to kidnap her.”

“ _And you moved in to stop them. What a dazzling way to capture a maiden’s heart._ ”

“I would say ‘the maiden’ captured my wallet and started to buy an incredibly big pile of useless garbage. And drugs,” I remarked, drawing a snort out of the Radio Demon at that. “Then she paid me back in full. I really don’t know what to think about what just happened.”

“ _O_ _h, did she leave you a phone number?_ ”

“Yeah?”

After checking the paper money once again, I found that she had left a piece of paper with her number written on it. I wasn’t sure if it was planned or maybe Molly just took that without thinking from her bag together with the money. Nonetheless, I didn’t know how to handle this kind of situation. Chicks were fine, but crazy chicks were… not the funniest girls to hang around, even when they aren’t trying to get in my pants or in a relationship with me.

“T _hen she is serious about this ‘friendship’ instance. Beware of any surprises, or you might end up handling quite the awkward bargain._ ”

“I will be careful. It’s… not my first rodeo.”

“I _’m sure it isn’t from the way you address this so calmly. Still, I can’t help but notice that you don’t… seem particularly happy today,_ ” Alastor pointed out. “ _Did something happen during your shift?_ ”

…

“I- I don’t want to make this a big thing but… something _did happen_ while I was handling Valentino’s men,” I commented nervously. “I tried to bluff my way out and… I did. But most of it didn’t feel like… me. Or something I would normally say. I was **smiling** and… speaking the same way you were, with the use of some terms to heighten the act I was going for.”

“ _That’s... interesting? I don’t mean to press too much if it is problematic but… you seem to have an issue with that._ ”

“It just felt… familiarly unpleasant. There was this… one time when it happened a few years ago and… that shouldn’t be happening. Not anymore that is,” I replied with a heavy sigh.

“ _You know what it is?_ ”

“I think. It’s the same as a medical problem I had but… I took my medicines, and I should be healed from it. I have been for two years now,” I answered tensely. “I just… don’t like the chances of this being somehow coming back for something tied to my current whereabouts. I don’t want to say it’s the gem but...”

But it was the easiest possible issue that led me to this very situation. The catalyst that brought back what I thought I had dug in the deepest corner in my mind, to never have it return back to the surface and make things… difficult for me.

" _T_ _hat’s deeply concerning. I’m quite certain that it isn’t connected with the pendant,_ ” The Radio Demon commented with a serious voice. “ _Perhaps we should pay a visit to someone that is better prepared in understanding this kind of issue. A close friend of mine that will help us without any stingy prices._ ”

“Oh, who is it?”

" _Someone that helped me during my first few years here in this interesting realm. She is a trustworthy woman, you will find her lovely._ ”

I could only nod as Alastor didn’t spare anything else about this mysterious woman. Not a name, the chances of her being a demon or just a sinner, or why he knew about her and how he got to meet her.

The rest of the day passed calmly and placidly. Uncle Al decided to teach me something particularly interesting as it didn’t need me making use of spells that could have broken the pendant. While Voodoo was mostly a ‘support-type’ kind of magic since it didn’t have enough to make it an easy skill to learn and use in an active fight, it was still something that got me interested in the potentiality of some spells within Alastor’s Grimoire. The afternoon just went on without any major circumstances and I was eventually left to stay in my room until dinnertime. I took this opportunity to ponder about that strange ‘switch’ I thought I had lost after three years of therapy. It was something I had fought to never have to deal with ever again. And yet… it was back.

“ _ **Y-You have to stop. I’m- I’m not joking.”** _

_**A bullet, then two, a third one seemed to ultimately kill the attacker. And I was left with just a frightened lamb with pretty blue lives. My smile faltered as I realized the horrible things I made.** _

_**I cough, then I tripped down as my brain failed to keep up with the pure stress of this situation.** _

The mere remembrance of that memory had me perplexed and horrified. I took suppressants back when I was still afflicted by that plight- I shouldn’t be remembering this kind of madness once again with the shit I had to pay to be granted a normal life. I thought I had been ‘rescued’ from that dreadful dark hole I had once fell into, and yet, for some reason, it was all boiling up to the surface once more.

The despair was slowly returned, I could tell that my stay in Hell just wasn’t going to be an easy one if it returned to its full might. I might not be able to survive it like last time, and… I doubted anyone or anything around me would do so too.

I tried to catch some rest, but the memory kept on returning to my head. There was no end to this and, before it was time to fall asleep for the night, I managed to find some sleeping pills by the nearest bathroom. Only then I was granted some proper sleeping out of that nightmarish development.

Just like back then, when I was still unsure what had been happening to my mind when the first ‘hit’ happened. When this all began. Those eyes, an attacker, those eyes, a gunshot, **those eyes and the hidden truth.**

_**I needed to solve this. I wasn’t planning to end up coming close to developing a pills’ addiction by keeping on using this temporary solution. There had to be a more definitive one to this matter.** _

**AN**

**The plot thickens, this MC isn’t as sane as the usual ones I write about. But what is this brand of insanity and how did it come to be… and why does these blue eyes hunt him so intensely?**

**Also, some confirmation since many failed to grasp this point: Alastor died in 1933, but he was vanquished off Earth as a Demon in 1942. Alastor didn’t ‘die’ in 1942.**


	5. From Within, with Disappointment

**Chapter 4: From Within, with Disappointment**

_“Such a wondrous opportunity. My nephew takes me for a ride around town with his sophisticate vehicle! What a joyful day this one is already?”_

I could only sigh at Alastor’s excitement as I tried to smoothly get us both to the address he just gave me. Most of the first half of the day had gone fine since the Radio Demon had taken this day off from his managerial work to go through what should have been my shift. I didn’t mind the lack of work since I was still unsure I would’ve been able to go through with it considering the little episode I had yesterday.

I still wasn’t sure what and how it happened, but I needed to seriously get checked on before things could get out of my hands. Which is why, today, much to my surprise, was going to be the best time to finally visit the close friend Uncle Al mentioned about the day before. I knew it was a woman, one that had been there in Hell well before Alastor, and that she was ‘surprisingly nice for a Demon’.

The ride wasn’t that long and we ended up reaching our destination in mere minutes after leaving the manor. The place itself was quite far from the major squares of the city, almost highlighting a degree of unknown since this section was controlled by an Overlord I knew nothing about. I knew where Valentino, Vox, and Velvet had their turfs, but this area of the city wasn’t one I was familiar with even through explanations.

A three-floors building, the sign said ‘Franklin & Rosie Emporium’ with ‘Franklin’ being ominously crossed out with blank ink. The setting didn’t look much since there wasn’t anything that could even just barely hint to anything dangerous unfolding from within, but I when the car began to slow down until it stopped, I noticed something lurking by the alley just beside the place. That something was none other than a bunch- no, **several** eyes squinting in our general direction as we both started to disembark from the car. I could only see their frames’ outline, the tube hats they were wearing and their short size. Not imps, but those were far from normal demons.

I could only assume those were minions, creatures created from hellish magicians through experience and sheer knowledge. Insignificant if in small numbers, but easy to mass-produce and render an effective guarding group for Overlords’ turfs. Which meant that, albeit an unknown Overlord to someone like me, the one that owned this area was definitely someone nobody could play or joke about.

I followed Alastor’s inside, the deer-like Demon ignoring the confused and vicious eyes aimed at us, taking me to the safety offered by the entrance room. A large section of the building that had a fairly long counter on one side and a couple of tables in the other. Frowning at this element, I thought this place was a shop rather than what looked to be a restaurant, yet the tables were leaning in that odd direction. My attention was eventually taken away by my silent study of the inner section of the building as Uncle Al suddenly picked up the pace and prompted me to do the same.

The reason that drove him to be this ‘excited’ seemed to be the only individual beyond us that was occupying this very floor. She was a slender demon with pale white skin, sharp white teeth and a really long neck. Her short hair was tied up under her red sun hat, the accessory having two skulls and three black flowers on the front side with a large red and black plume on the top side. She wore a red dress with gray shoulder pads, a black belt, and black wrists. But the thing that had me perplexed the most over this interesting appearance, was that the woman was ‘wearing a smile as big as Uncle Al’. Wide, her sharp teeth were in display.

The lady was calmly sipping at some tea, her cup letting out a barely visible hint of steam out of the liquid.

 _“Rosie.”_ Uncle Al addressed calmly, almost with fondness in his voice.

“If it’s not little Alastor,” The lady addressed with a nod. “It’s been almost a decade since you visited on your own volition and without any clients of yours being the main reason of your presence within my humble parlor.”

 _“I’ve been particularly busy. Sinners to torture, hotels to manage,”_ The Radio Demon admitted. _“But I would have absolutely visited you the very moment I had something exciting to bring you.”_

“Which is why you have this guest with yours. I just need a single glance and I can tell that behind that mask is someone you are tied with blood.”

I tensed up at that comment, holding back a shiver as I felt her dead stare onto me.

 _“Correct as only you can be, Rosie,”_ The deer-like demon mentioned. _“I wish to introduce you to my… nephew, Alan.”_

“It’s… a pleasure,” I added quietly, gaining a swift giggle from the demon.

“Likewise. And truly, what a pleasure it is to be bestowed with such a unique circumstance,” The woman commented. “A Demon like Alastor… being here in my Emporium together with a human relative of his.”

... _Wait, how did she know that I was human?_

“Your magical imprint is humane. Too humane to be confused for a low-tier sinner,” The lady explaining. “Your posture just tells it all. Like Alastor was back when he was just starting to understand how Hell worked back when he first came here.”

 _“Rosie was one of the first Demons that showed me the ropes of being an Overlord,”_ The Radio Demon explained. _“A sweetheart that was kind enough to take poor hopeless me under her care for decades.”_

“And then you turned into someone that can easily make most of the high-tier warlords shiver in their boots,” She pointed out amusingly. “And here you are, perhaps in need of my help for something. Something that I can only presume is tied to your ‘nephew’.”

Alastor sighed, nodding at that correct assumption. _“The boy has been manifesting some irregular… episodes. Moments where traumas begin to manifest without an apparent reason. The only thing I know is that it’s tied to his recent arrival in this lovely realm.”_

“And he had the pendant, I can feel its energy,” Rosie added, humming as she was once again looking at me. “Right now, I have only theories, but I should be able to gain a proper understanding through a private session. I need to be alone with him for at least an hour to gain a better insight over his current plight.”

I glanced at Alastor, trying to understand if I could really trust the lady or not, but from the confident look on the deer-like demon’s face, I could tell that I shouldn’t have much to worry about. Once she was done with her tea, she led me away from the patiently waiting Demon, taking me to a small room right near to the entrance one. It felt like the room a therapist would have, modestly small, with a couple of book shelves left and right, two chairs in the middle of the room and a table between the two seats.

We sat down by those, and the woman regarded me with a sigh.

“I will require you to touch your hands. The only way for me to give you the best advice possible is for me to have a glimpse within your head and into your memories.”

…

“What?”

_Indeed, what the fuck, lady!?_

“Considering Alastor himself couldn’t find the issue behind this rise of traumatic episodes, I know that the only way that we can have a clear answer about the problem is to see if the problem itself has been caused by hell itself or something else,” Rosie explained. “Mind you, young man, I am no enemy to your ‘Uncle’ and that I have long abandoned the need to ambitiously pave my road to success. I just enjoy a simple life with a simple emporium.”

“...Still, isn’t that really private?”

“Like a doctor that needs to check on your body to understand your wounds, I need to do something similar to that to understand the plight of your mind,” She replied. “I really don’t seek to harm you, but I need to know what I have to treat before I can give you an answer to your affliction.”

…

I sighed. “Fine...”

I reached out, both open palms quickly held by her own hands. I felt a jolt going through my spine and the woman… pulled away. Her smile widened, as if she had gained a real solution out of this.

“A sin. A big sin. You are afraid of this malicious action you have committed in cold blood,” Rosie started to say, her voice trembling in some morbid excitement. “You were there, and… you enjoyed it. Every single moment of it. The beginning, the shot, and then the moment the carcass of your victim fell lifeless on the ground. The blood, there was a river of it.”

“...”

“Ah yes, of course. Your worry… it’s not about the blood, or else you would have been more upset of spilling even more now that you work for Al in such an unpleasant clean up process,” Rosie muttered calmly. “Your fright, the one thing that leaves you shocked is… those lovely eyes. Aren’t you an elegant admirer of true fear in display? Of admiration, of gratefulness… of worry, and ultimately regret.”

“Y-You don’t-”

“Know anything. Everyone is always saying this, expecting to be somewhat correct, but let me tell you something I learned after centuries of studying how the human mind works,” The woman interrupted, her smile unfazed by my attempt to oppose her explanation. “Just because you commit a sin, it doesn’t mean you are evil. You didn’t do it for the sake of enjoying the murder, the thrill was driven by something that Alastor could sympathize, but at the same time now he would find… less than appealing.”

“...And that is?”

Rosie’s smile seemed to widen at my confused but also interested tone, as if enjoying the fact she was in control of that simple conversation. I could tell she was the kind of person that had just enough experience of hell itself to exert that kind of power over those that had been around this place for much less than her.

“You felt it was justice. You felt it was the best moment your life mattered as the handler of justice itself within a dreadful circumstance.”

…

“What- What are you talking about?”

“People will not remember this event because you hate it. The fact you had to do it, the fact you had to claim the life of someone else to prove that you are no puppet and that your life is yours to take and control- you foolishly believe it was your moment to break away from the chains you have been tied to for many years… if only you knew how wrong you are.”

“Then what is the solution?”

“You… need to find out what those eyes really mean. You are afraid of the topic and until now you never had the chance of thinking about it. You will go through an unpleasant road since your plight is tied to Hell itself. This is a place where sinners suffer by their own sins, and you, despite being a human, are already tainted by the blood in your hands,” Rosie answered lengthily. “Understand your sin as it really is, and then you shall be set free from the pain you are even now.”

“T-This doesn’t help at all!” I lamented loudly. “I trusted you-”

“And I gave you no reason to doubt me. The solution is ahead, and it’s one that you could easily reach out for on your own… but you really need to do this by yourself. The moment someone helps you beyond secondary steps, your journey to embrace the truth will be diluted and rendered unable to fill up the unhappiness you are in.”

…

“So… I’m fucked. I really don’t know about her eyes- how am I supposed to deal with this?”

…

“How about you think about it, instead of whining as a child, expecting for the answer to be handed to you with ease?”

“Maybe I wouldn’t be whining much if I was provided some real help here!” I remarked fiercely. “Here you are, telling me that it’s all so easy and that I shouldn’t be having trouble with this- but then here I am, requiring help because I can’t get through this mess”.

“You mistook my words,” The woman calmly interrupted. “I never said it was without troubles, only that it was normally easy. You might now find the difference between the two elements but… easy things can easily become too difficult if adversities from beyond your reach are stacked against you.”

“And so?”

“Find your answer, the truth is right in front of you as you stare in a mirror. You just need to look closer and spot what within you is the cause of this.”

...

“I believe we are done,” Rosie nodded while saying this, looking unfazed by my previously furious self, and almost looking sympathetic to the reaction I was having on the matter. She took me back to Alastor, and soon the Radio Demon and I were back on the trip to return home.

Uncle Al would ask about what got me stuck for that long. I would just reply it was nothing, and that she too didn’t know what the real problem was. He spotted the lie, chiding me again but… surprisingly enough keeping from asking about the truth.

I was perplexed, but mostly glad about this turn of events. I really didn’t need to bring up bad memories. Especially those that right now shouldn’t make any big impact in my life. Yet, like many years ago, I find myself confined within a small face to try and understand where things had taken such a vicious turn and… how I became the person I currently was.

_**A nightmare after the other.** _

\----------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d------

I was once more alone in the manor.

Alastor had been called to handle a difficult circumstance rising up within the hotel about new residents. He didn’t know enough to give me a proper explanation of what was going on, but it seemed urgent enough to get him moving as quickly as he could once we were back home.

Left again to my own devices, I decided to spend a good part of the first few minutes procrastinating over the situation. At this point, with how bored I was slowly getting, I really needed to find a hobby whenever I was stuck in this place. Whining and bitching were hardly good ways to entertain time, and I knew that I really needed to find something to do.

A pity that Uncle Al had forbidden any chances of buying anything that could be used by Vox to harass us while we were in the supposedly safe building. Which meant no phones, no PCs, and no TVs. Which meant nothing to waste time on except starting to read the books about Voodoo that he left me to either study or entertain myself with.

The book was thick with pages that were filled with small-worded explanations that covered more than hundreds thousands of words. I managed to get until Page 10, and even then I was still far from over when it came to the first practice. Seriously the book was packed with so many introduction pages that I thought for a moment that it was just a bunch of theories about the subject, and not the real deal.

Curses, hexes, something that helps warding from specific demons. It was a goldmine of knowledge but still far from actually becoming a good way to waste the evening. Sadly, I didn’t feel up for hours driving my nose onto books, mostly because I still had so much to think about and I just couldn’t keep too much focus beyond the one I was aiming at in the current circumstance I had to handle on my own.

On my own. It just felt so incredibly annoying to hear this much after giving her absolute trust over my memories, but… it also felt true. I could still remember the multiple times where old therapists would just say the same. They didn’t know what I did, and they were treating me for a mental breakdown that had happened a few months after that event. I just snapped, I just started to yell and hit people back home.

That warranted a check up, and the response was… far from stellar. I was in need of medicines, I spent a few years getting out of this treatment, but I was granted some relief as I felt my mind getting clearer and the thoughts easier to process and understand compared to before.

With that in mind, I knew I couldn’t exactly stop and obsess about the circumstance. I needed a distraction, something to keep my mind busy for a few hours. Knowing that I wasn’t in a book mood, I began thinking of what else I could do in the manor. The answer was unflattering since the place was stark clean and didn’t require any help to fix it up.

Seriously, I was impressed by the fact that a building this big was so clean and taken care of so well. It just felt odd for some reason, but… I’ve seen odder. After seeing the crazy daily news service presented by Flint Dicker and the fashion ads from that blind German designer, I think there was very little that surprised me beyond sudden demonic appearances trying to murder me.

So, instead of wasting time just thinking and hoping to find something but only thinking and doing anything concrete about it, I decided to check on what I could actually do within the manor beyond the previously-listed activities. The solution manifested in the form of a small business card I had been ignoring for long.

While I didn’t have anyone to murder, maybe I could now try to see if I can contact Moxxie. It’s been a long time now, and I really wondered if the Imp was alive or not. Maybe he was dead, his job just was that scarily suicidal considering the odds they were all stacked against. Specialists or not, imps still weren’t top-notch assassins if it came about killing a relevant element, like a powerful Overlord or one of the Princes of Hell.

Using one of the wire phones within the building, I started to input the correct keys I needed to call the number listed on the card. There was a brief moment of peace as the phone attempted a stable connection with the other side of the line and… it worked.

**“** _**Hello, you are speaking with I.M.P.. If you are rich and with an offer that is accepted by our requirements then-”** _

“Loona?” I asked in pure shock, not expecting to hear her on the other side.

**“** _**What you are… Alan? It’s that you?”** _

“Yep. Didn’t expect to find you as the… secretary of I.M.P.?”

**“** _**It’s more I’m the chick behind the screen telling them how to not mess things up. But… yeah, it’s mostly me dying while getting harassed by calls about possible offers.”** _

“How is that actually bad? It’s money-”

**“** _**Most of the time the pricks just give us missions and they don’t pay. I have to fucking vet them before sending the offer to the boss.”** _

“Fair enough,” I admitted. “Still, this is a surprise.”

**“** _**I guess- but if you aren’t calling because of me, then do you need any assistance with a murder or-”** _

“Actually, I wanted to speak to someone. I believe he works in the organization and-”

 **“ _You are friends with Moxxie?”_** Loona interrupted me, sounding almost disgusted by what I had just said.

“Kind of? We met each other in quite the difficult circumstance a few days ago.”

 **“ _How do you even befriend someone so… boring?”_** She asked with some annoyance. But before I had the chance of replying to that, she suddenly spoke up again. **“ _Wait, how did you meet him?”_**

I quickly felt the chance of tones, with her irritation turning in seriousness, and I realized that it was correlated to the very event that led me to gain the business card with the phone number.

“Well it’s… a tiny bit complicated?”

**_“‘Killing an Exorcist and then bail from the Extermination with Moxxie’ kind of complicated?”_ **

…

“Maybe.”

**“** _**Alan-”** _

“I swear I didn’t jump on danger’s way on purpose. I just ended up there and-”

**“** _**You fucking saved Moxxie back then. He was going to die if not... Holy fuck.”** _

I blinked. “What?”

**“** _**Don’t give me that shit. You are smart enough to connect dots- If it wasn’t for you well… I would have lost a… friendly acquaintance.”** _

“I sense some lying here-”

 **“ _And I sense a dick-face on the other side of the call!”_** She snapped, showing how much of a Tsundere she was trying to be.

“Fair enough. Still, I didn’t just jump into the rescue, kind of landed in the spot between the winged haloed prick and Moxxie.”

_**“** **Still saved him. It does count as a save and… you know what? How about we talk about this in person? I want some details now.”** _

“You mean... we hang out and talk about this somewhere?” I inquired, surprised by the proposal.

_**“** **Yeah. I’m feeling holed up right now with the fact I can’t get out of the office while the others are on mission. And yes, they are out right now.”** _

“That sounds sucky,” I commented mirthfully, and the hellhound snorted.

**“** _**It is sucky.”** _

“How about in two days? We get lunch together and we discuss this.”

Loona hummed about it. **_“I have to check on Da- I mean, Blitz, but I think I should be free for that. Maybe we can go to this cool pub around the corner of Penance Street. It’s in Imp City, but I don’t recall asking you if-”_**

“I have a car, I will be there,” I interrupted with a sigh. “I guess it’s a date.”

**_“I-It’s not. Fuck off.”_ **

I held back a chuckle at that response, really knowing how easy to fluster some people with Loona personality were. With the phone call coming to an end, I couldn’t help but feel like I was really tired all so suddenly. A yawn left my lips as I walked to my bed and decided to waste the remaining time for lunch for a quick nap.

Alastor would return just in time to get some salmon-based food prepared, changing the usual meat-themed dishes with some seafood too. He chatted about some issues at the Hotel about two new residents trying and ‘gloriously failing’ to understand how their redemption path was supposed to work. From the way he described it himself, not even the Princess of Hell knew what was going on in her own hotel.

The more he spoke about it, the more I felt intrigued by it, but I refused to bring up the chances of visiting it. I really wasn’t up to try and test my luck by wandering around Lucifer’s only child after I might have caused him some trouble for killing that freaky angel thingy.

_**Hopefully, he will just forget and somewhat forgive too in due time. Maybe there will finally be a time where I’m not going to worry about being turned in a puppet or outright killed. But for now… it’s time for some delicious dinner.** _

\-------------d-d-d-d--------------d-d-d-d------------

**1942, from the pages of Nestor XXX…**

_When I was discharged with honor from the army, I felt relieved that I was spared going through a war with just a single eye. The Battle of Bataan, the frightening sights I had seen there against the Japanese and the powerful bomb that rendered my left eye unable to ever see again- I expected to be granted a bountiful life away from the horrors that the War in the Pacific I had left, hoping for a just reward for serving the country._

_I had a wife that was already waiting for me, someone that… was uneasy at first when she looked at the dreadful wound disfiguring my face, the one that had given me the chance of returning back home. She learned to live with this development, with the fact her husband was no longer the roguish devil she fell for._

_But as I tried to settle back to civilian life, hopeful to finally regain bearings over my different state of mind and body, a letter came to my home. A letter that opened a bigger wound in my heart arrived from a place I had once called home. It didn’t have any sender, but the message left me as furious as worried._

_**Come back home, brother of mine.** _

_Someone was impersonating Alastor. Something unforgivable and that warranted a visit to see who was the foolish lad that had decided to mess with my family. It’s been nine years now and… that tragic day still struck me unhappy. If only I had seen the signs- if only I had moved to prevent those drunk hunters from hunting the area you were in, my poor little brother._

\----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d--------------d-d-d-d-------------

**AN**

**An explanation about why Alan got this ‘PTSD’ and why it will make for quite the issue that can’t be solved beyond a specific answer. An answer that is already there… but that the MC sees as impossible to solve as all readers here and now since they don’t know the full extent of the story… like Alan can’t see the full truth through his own memories.**

**Those blue eyes…**

**P.S. Yes, I might make references to Brandon Rogers’ works.**


	6. Two ways to make a Friend

**Chapter 5: Two ways to make a Friend**

Two days tend to move rather quickly when you don’t have much to do.

After contemplating over the words of advice from Rosie, I decided to put to test how much this condition was going to affect my current situation. I was allowed to get back to work after just that very day. I had to convince Alastor a lot about the matter, but the Radio Demon was easy to relent when I gave him a day to try if I was really capable of keeping stable while on duty.

First day was successful. No voices, no visions, no need to murder, and definitely no psychotic speech taking over my usual pattern. I was clean as I could have hoped for, and I was glad that I didn’t have to face any possible lecture about being wrong about my current sanity. I didn’t need it- I only wanted to be granted some time to further think about it.

From what Rosie had also explained, I also had to… let go of it? No, the wording was different but the message was pretty close. But while the plan sounded that simple, there was no way, within my frame of morality, that I could allow myself to drop something I was actually heinous about. There was nothing in here that could have changed my mind about it.

I didn’t make a long case with Alastor, but I was quite sure the Demon had realized this too. Until I was around this place and I wasn’t given the chance to get back on the land of the living, I wasn’t going to be freed from this little curse of mine. Of course, I wasn’t planning to get back out of there. Despite the big bump in the road… this was perhaps way better than I could have imagined things to go for me.

Being a bartender was a thrilling experience, but I knew that, if I wanted to get set for life I was supposed to work for a decade or two at the same job with the same wage, and maybe the least available holidays away from work itself. Not a stellar prospect for a successful career to be happy about.

Which is why, beyond the deadly environment within and around Hell itself, I found this place to be ten times better than anything I could have gotten in the land of the living. Alastor had to pay minimal taxes, he was pretty rich and by consequence I was rich myself. Of course, I had my own cash to rely on, but it was nice to know that, in times of trouble, I had someone to rely on that wouldn’t have abused that moment of weakness.

It was kind of ironic that the best part of the family, the one thing I had despised for so long, was residing in hell. Maybe I was being too harsh since there was someone that I could actually say I was in a good relationship with. Kind of a pity that I was never going to see her again but… maybe it’s all for the best.

Still, two days went by quite swiftly and I was spared from finding Molly during those forty-eight hours. From what I could remember, she had to have already left the Radio Demon’s turf to get on safer sections of Pentagram City until she was off the hook with Valentino. Much to my surprise, there was no retaliation from the pimp overlord. Alastor had to double-check to see if there was something wrong about this, but what he found was… curious.

For some strange reason, Valentino had gone quiet compared to a few weeks ago. While not an aggressive competitor for districts, the man was known to have weekly bouts of anger and frustration against anyone that pissed him well enough to snap. It was a common routine for many… that alerted them that something was really wrong if the Moth demon was now keeping quiet and not visiting around his own turf. It’s been some silent days in that area, and, even though I never checked that part of the city, I knew that it meant someone was about to get some serious trouble.

I was partly certain I wasn’t the target. Else Uncle Al would have spotted some oddities unraveling within his turf. But nothing had come out of it, so there was a great chance that the poor bastard was someone else. Someone that I didn’t know and was certainly not tied to me at all.

Nonetheless, with the shift coming to an end for the day, I proceeded to board my car and calmly ride out of Pentagram City. To avoid awkward circumstances that had happened back when I first left Imp City, I made sure to learn the proper streets and roads to reach a couple of nearby cities near the ‘capital’. I wasn’t a road expert, but I could at least say that I could move around with a greater awareness of my whereabouts.

The vehicle quietly hummed as I was given a blessing in the form of no traffic between me and the exit area I had to take to get on my way to my destination. I passed with ease the loose control on the ‘border’, and I calmly enjoyed the trip. No music, no distraction- only me, my thoughts, the hellish scenery on my sides, and a certain uneasiness about not messing things up at the rendezvous with my ‘date’. Thinking about how Loona was going to behave after a tiring day at work, I was sure that she was going to be difficult to handle during conversations. I thought alcohol was going to make things even worse if I didn’t pay enough attention for any telling hints of her mood.

These thoughts kept me on the edge during the journey, but I managed to recover enough calm by the time I had to park near the pub the hellhound had mentioned we were meant to meet. After turning off the vehicle, I disembarked with a careful stance, taking a moment to look around for any troublesome pest trying to set up an ambush for me.

While I didn’t want to sound like a racist, it was common knowledge that Imps had a penchant for malicious deeds. Sometimes it was murder, and sometimes it was setting up mugging operations. I was confident that I was going to eventually find a mugger if I wandered these streets for long enough, but I didn’t have plans to do so for the time being. For now, it was just going to meet with Loona and get a pleasant afternoon hangout going without any major issues.

The place itself wasn’t anything too strange. I had worked on worse places and I knew that it was fine for a place in hell to appear so… unpleasant. So I found myself at peace when I realized that, despite the apparent disorder, there was a sense of organization between the bartender, owner, and the staff. Quick glances, subtle nods, some tacit messages being exchanged by mere looks…

_This place was filled with professionals._

While I was no full expert, I still could see that the business wasn’t as disjointed as it might be perceived by someone that didn’t have much experience in this kind of work. My gaze finally stopped as I found very quickly that I wasn’t the first one to arrive and that my ‘date’ was already sitting by one of the tables. Loona was barely paying attention to her surroundings, the hellhound staring down at the screen of her phone, earbuds put on and depriving her of any way to hear anything happening in her proximity as she listened to some music. With her left leg resting on her right one, I could see her partly-visible paw tilt and bob at the rhythm of the song she was listening to.

I didn’t waste time in zeroing the distance and getting close enough to take a seat in front of her. She tensed up the moment she saw me move the chair to get myself seated, but calmed down the moment I gave a quick wave at her with my right hand.

“Alan.”

I shrugged. “Loona, I hope I didn’t have you wait for long.”

“Five minutes… I’m almost tempted to say that you wanted to ditch me,” She muttered mirthfully, an amused smile on her face. “Nah, I was just taking a moment to comment on some shit on Voxtagram. Any reasons for turning up this crazy late?”

“I ended the shift a little late compared to usual. A couple of morons were having joyful discussions, but instead of words the exchange was by punches and kicks.”

“Oh, pics or I don’t believe.”

“Then I believe it will just be hearsay since I don’t have a phone,” I reminded, making her frown.

“Seriously, why is your uncle this much of a jerk?”

I frowned. “What? Why?”

“Well, what kind of moron wouldn’t want to get Voxtagram? As much as Vox is a prick, that doesn’t mean you should be away from social media,” Loona pointed out.

“...It’s a little more than petty hatred. There is much to it that can be said between my uncle and Vox. Let’s just say that these two know each other well and… they hate each other’s guts,” I answered with a serious tone. “I wouldn’t mind getting some other way to chat around, but the risks are well beyond the advantages about that.”

“That bad?”

“Helluva worse at times too,” I remarked and she sighed.

“I swear, it almost seems like you have some bizarre luck on you,” The hellhound lamented. “Like, how about we talk about what happened with you and Moxxie?”

I blinked, sparing a quick glance around before accepting this topic. I really wasn’t planning to get eavesdropped by some bastards that could exploit my current circumstances. I had faith in Loona to not be a backstabbing bitch so, I threw my best shot at hope.

“What do you want to know? I thought you already knew the general stuff.”

“General shit hardly satisfies my curiosity,” She shot back. “How the fuck did you magically end up ‘dropping’ were Mox was?”

I guess that was one thing that wasn’t exactly explained. I was surprised she caught on that quickly, but I decided to spare some truth.

“I would say it was actually luck. It was the time I entered Hell.”

“That’s so… bullshit.”

“Hey, I would have wanted to give a cooler explanation, but I have a feeling you don’t like liars, so why bother?”

“And what you said wasn’t a fucking lie?” Loona pressed with some annoyance and I shrugged. “And I should just accept that you died and miraculously ended up right there, moments away before Moxxie got killed? I don’t believe that.”

“Technically… I didn’t die.”

“What are you...” The hellhound paused, her eyes narrowed as she realized what I was hinting about. “You are trying to tell me that… actually, follow me.”

I blinked, having just a brief second to see Loona’s hand rushing to tightly grasp at my closest wrist and pull me up before taking me to the bathroom area. I felt a little bit awkward at that forwardness, but I knew it wasn’t anything lewd. Far from it.

Once we were both inside the girls-only bathroom, the young woman took a moment to look around for any eavesdropper. It was just the two of us inside the area and she quickly regaled me with a serious look.

“You want me to fucking believe you? Drop the mask, now.”

…

I complied, and I slowly reached to head protection before lifting it up and pulling it away from my face. Loona’s serious look faltered, a mix of surprise and… awe? I saw her cheeks flaring a clear red, which was easy to spot on due to how pale her fur and skin were.

“Holy shit-”

I gave a tentative smile. “Are you seeing something you like?”

The hellhound didn’t reply to my words, instead she had her hands reaching for my cheeks and patting there, as if checking if it wasn’t another mask or something like that. Her blush didn’t leave, but it was clear to me that she was fairly interested in my face with the way she was patting.

“...Can you not?”

She tensed up. “Oh-” She pulled away. “Oh fuck. I… you are a fucking living being.”

“Yep.”

“Not a sinful soul.”

“Nope.”

“Nor a Demon.”

“That’s my uncle.”

She frowned. “Uncle? Who the hell is-”

“Great-granduncle,” I reiterated. “He is an overlord.”

…

“Alan, can I ask you a serious question?”

“I believe you have asked plenty now. But fire away.”

“How the… how the fuck did you get this insane of a luck?”

“I...” I paused, taking a moment to blink at that query. “I really don’t know.”

“This is absolutely insane. Like, I don’t give a shit, you are still the same bastard I’ve meet at Stylish Occult- but holy fuck, how did you get in this spot?”

“I would like to… know myself, I suppose.”

“That’s why Moxxie was so nervous about telling anyone about it? Heck, it makes sense why he was so tense to even tell Millie about some of the details,” Loona started to consider, looking away from me for a moment. Her eyes would soon return to glance at me. “Still, that means you literally are a target for any bastard with a power kink and puppet play.”

“My uncle told me that too, yes. Which is why I’m very careful about it all.”

…

“I knew there was some secret shit I couldn’t see on my own, but… fuck, this is far more than anything I could’ve expected. You sure don’t hold out with surprises.”

I wasn’t really sure if she was taking it really well or not, but I had this feeling that she was liking my face a little too much from the way she was having trouble looking at it.

“Do you… want me to put my mask back on?”

She paused, her eyes narrowing at me. “What? Why?”

I frowned at the fact Loona really seemed offended by it. I mean, I can understand confusion, but I don’t see why she needed to be angry about it.

“Well, you are having issues staring at me-”

“Because I’m still coping with the fact your face is actually nice-looking and not burned or scarred- Wait.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a smile, ignoring her annoyed look.

“I meant I’m still recovering from the fact you aren’t actually ugly.”

…

“Thank you again?”

She bared her teeth and I knew it was about time to back off from that kind of confrontation.

“This makes things really interesting. While I’ve been working long enough to know how normal humans look like, I didn’t fucking expect being friend with one.”

“A handsome friend-”

“A dick of a friend at that,” The hellhound exhausted tiredly. “Seriously, you are a fucking trouble magnet.”

“Not always,” I rebuked instinctively and she snorted. “Come on, it’s not that bad.”

“I guess it isn’t. Definitely better than being stuck at the office expecting to receive a new mission,” She agreed reluctantly. “Or a call from Blitz’s booty call.”

…

“So… I believe we can go back now,” I offered, with Loona nodding and allowing me to put the mask back on before walking with me back to the pub. No one seemed to have noticed our disappearance, and we took this chance to finally order some beers to drink. Loona took the lead in the conversation by adding some random topics for me to add or expand upon. We were busy with the discussion that eventually our time together was interrupted by a phone call by her ‘dad’. The guy mentioned that ‘she had to get to bed early since tomorrow was going to be a big day’ or something like that.

As expected, the hellhound reacted in true frustration at that interruption, but she seemed to calm down as soon as I mentioned that we could have met another day and… that we both had a lot to think about for today. She agreed to this, but also made it clear that… she wasn’t angry. Just surprised, but overall interested in the entire predicament.

I wasn’t exactly sure it was a ‘good’ kind of interest or not, but I… was a little too tipsy to mind about it. After drinking a couple of bottles, I was slowly feeling my capacity to think too many things at once slip away and… I really wanted to skip dinner and get to bed. I could only yawn as I bid a good evening to Loona, my attention shifting at the car and… then back at myself.

If I was back home, I could easily get a ticket if I tried to drive drunk but… hell didn’t have any of that shit to make me worry about safe driving. And I still needed to get back to the manor somehow. I was technically capable of holding myself without limping or slouching around, but I was slowly getting sleepy and I wanted to crash onto a mattress as quickly as possible.

As I pressed on the gas a little more than usual, I made some small prayers that I wasn’t going to make any accidents with this poorly-made decision. I knew that this was going to end badly but… I still hoped to get through without any problem in my path.

_**Except that I ended up making a happy accident for the sake of saving someone while busy getting back to Uncle Al. For now, the worry was about dinner… and the bed.** _

\----------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d--------

When a drunken moron has the wheel, many things tend to happen to anyone unfortunate to wander the streets. Most of those easily lead to roadkills that really made for a bad way to end a night spent in a pub or a night bar. But since I was the one in charge of the car, I was actually capable of not pulling the same shit many drunk drivers would. I wasn’t completely gone when it came to logical thinking, but it would’ve been a lie to say that I was completely aware of my surroundings. I had a slight issue of getting distracted fairly easily, but since the road back home was mostly a line that was easy to follow, I managed to avoid anything that could have distracted me and got me off-tracks.

I was doing a fine job turning the corners, making sure to not violate the rules beyond the fact I was driving drunk. I had built a strong alcoholic resilience that helped me keep up with what I had drunk a little less than an hour earlier. I was still in need of finding a bed and sleeping my drunkenness there, but first I needed to get back to the manor.

Humming quietly, I forced myself to not stare at any neon signs around me as I finally arrived at Pentagram City. Nobody was wandering the streets, those few fools that were still around were rushing to get back home as night time was when gangs and other criminals started to make actions against each other. And I really didn’t need to be around when that started to happen.

I turned the umpteenth corner, feeling safer as I was now clearly within Uncle Al’s turf, meaning that I didn’t have to worry about any sudden attacks aimed at me. I was so convinced of this that I almost completely stopped the vehicle when I ended up finding quite the scene as I finished turning to one of the last areas I had to get through to arrive at my destination.

Two individuals in the middle of the road. One was on the floor bleeding… it took me just a moment to recognize that fluffy-looking white half-blur. Molly was severely injured. Still moving, but clearly at a serious disadvantage as she was facing quite the worst enemy she could have asked for. No matter how strong and lucky you can try to be, I doubted someone weaker than an overlord was going to actually beat a monster like the TV Demon himself.

Vox was as tall as Uncle Al, and he seemed particularly more vicious than the Radio Demon from the way I was looking at the scene. He had yet to turn to glance at the approaching vehicle, clearly more interested in his target as he advanced towards the injured Spider-like sinner. Remembering that if I didn’t act quickly on my own volition I was going to suffer some visions, I decided to do something only a Drunk Alan could have thought about.

_Men, it’s time! RAMMING SPEED~!_

The engine was pushed to the limits as I went as fast as possible. Turning the vehicle in a big bullet, Vox had just the time to turn and grace the approaching car before he was sent flying away for a couple of meters. The frontal window cracked at the impact, but the damage wasn’t enough to hinder my sight as I had yet to recover the injured girl and get out of that part of the city. I spared a quick look at Molly, and I scowled at how shocked she was on the matter.

“A-Allie?”

“Get inside!”

My yell seemed to break Molly’s trance and urge her to finally act. The sinner pushed herself off the ground, limping towards the car as she rushed to get to the passenger’s seat. I was tapping nervously at the wheel with my fingers, my feet ready to press the gas and release the pedal keeping the vehicle paused before a troublesome individual to have to face right now.

Vox wasn’t exactly going to give up after getting hit by a car-load of pain, but I knew the bastard was going to take serious offense at the sudden attack, and he was going to retaliate as he finished getting up from the floor. The moment I heard Molly jump inside and close the door behind her, my feet moved quickly and I had the engine stressed again, getting the car moving as quickly as possible away from the bastard’s reach.

We managed to get away just in time as a flood of cables and wires exploded out from nearby shops that were selling TVs. The electric tendrils failed to even graze the vehicle, and I didn’t stop my effort to go as quickly as possible until the manor was in sight. Stopping by the sidewalk section closest to the gates, I finally glanced at Molly. Lots of blood, she wasn’t having a fun time in these conditions from the looks of it.

“Molly, you- are you still awake?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Keep awake. Don’t- Don’t fall asleep.”

“Okay...” She replied weakly and I knew I was working on a short time to get her properly treated. I jumped off the car and bolted as quickly as I could to the other side, opening the door on her side and carefully lifting her up in my hold. The girl didn’t make any resistance, almost slumping over me as I picked her up. There was no hesitation at this point as I knew I was running on a painfully tight schedule.

The guardian at the entrance didn’t waste too much time noticing me, allowing for the gates to keep open just for long enough to allow me inside, closing suddenly behind me. I ran up to the entrance and saw Alastor already waiting by the open doors.

“ _Alan,_ ” He greeted quietly. “ _I see we have a… guest._ ”

“She needs medical help.”

“ _And more than that,_ ” The Radio Demon commented dryly, allowing me free passage. “ _I believe you should take her by the dining room. I shall see if the required medical tools are prepared for the situation._ ”

Tools? I was too drunk to understand much, but even at that point I could tell that something was off about it. Molly was growing weaker by the second, and my panic kept on increasing as I reached my last destination and I found Alastor now waiting by the table and searching inside a magic book.

“ _Set her on the table. And follow my instructions,_ ” Alastor commented. “ _It’s crucial you don’t skip a beat, my boy._ ”

I gave a quick nod and… he started to chant some spell. I remained quiet as I saw him create some symbols through energy, some of which started to move and hover around the barely conscious body of the spider-like sinner.

“ _Now, take that knife and cut your palm in half._ ”

Oh, that’s… simple? I was a little bit reluctant, but I had a strong feeling that I didn’t have much of a choice now that the spell was underway. I picked up the strange-looking curved blade, carefully and slowly cutting my left palm and… allowing for some drops of my blood to float out of my wound? I stared at the spectacle in confusion, and I saw the blood settle down to Molly’s body. A blinding light soon began to burn through my eyes as I was caught in what looked to be a sudden flashbang’s attack that forced me to look away.

The light dissipated shortly after, and I turned back to see that Molly was… actually fine. All her wounds and the blood that had been spilled was now away from anyone to see, as if she was never injured to begin with. Her big eyes regained focus, their attention quickly aimed at her own body as she realized that she was no longer in pain and in a deadly situation.

“I’m alright?”

“What… happened exactly?” I questioned tiredly, looking at the strange wider grin on Alastor’s face.

“ _Congratulations, my boy! It would seem like you managed to get yourself a more loyal friend to care about through that binding ritual._ ”

…

“You what?!”

I was drunk, I was tired, but I wasn’t stupid enough to allow this shit to go for free. But while I planned to pressure Alastor for a serious answer about this, a certain thankful Spider-like sinner took this opportunity to jump off the table and tackle me down to the ground, giving the Radio Demon the time to happily stroll out of the room.

“ _Have fun getting to know each other better~._ ”

_**Goddammit Uncle Al! Get back here and- Molly, stop pushing my head into your boobs. It’s the worst moment to do that!** _

\--------d-d-d-d-d----------------

**1942, from the pages of Nestor XXX…**

_My return to my hometown was mostly uneventful. I decided to go alone, to test and remember the past without having to nag my wife with some bitter memories this place still had within me._

_I decided to check in by the local inn as I arrived in town by nighttime. The owner had been a friendly acquaintance that was more than happy to give me a small discount on the costs of keeping a room for a full month. He was quite nervous, and the inn itself was devoid of many customers. While the town was usually this barren of life, I still doubted that the reason behind this lack of tourists was driven by geographical issues._

_Questioning the host seemed to only get him nervous, giving me no answers to my current questions and fueling my uneasiness that something big was going on in town. I was nervous, but not afraid as I had decided to bring a small tool that I had managed to buy just as I returned back home. A ‘souvenir’ from the war, and the very weapon I had grown accustomed to during my service in the Pacific Front._

_The M1897, affectionately called by many of my comrades as the Trench Gun, was a shotgun that had seen so much action ever since it was first created. This model was mostly new, and not one of those that I had the chance of using during my active duty. The feeling of holding was the same as the one I had back during the war._

_Now, the real matter was to find out who the ‘enemy’ was. I knew the folks here were frightened by something, a monster. Some children were keen to mention a malicious creature haunting the forest all around._

_Tomorrow morning, I decided, I was going to hunt for some truth._

**\------------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d--------**

**AN**

**Lots of things to think about. Loona was stunned in a blush when she found out about Alan’s real face, Molly was ‘bound’ to Alan and… Nestor is beginning his investigation.**

**...Yep, this is going to be a long story for sure…**


	7. Sticky Attraction

**Chapter 6: Sticky Attraction**

I was grounded. Kind of.

Maybe the affirmation isn’t completely correct since the reason why I was now meant to keep within the manor for at least two full days wasn’t out of punishment, but rather out of concern. Uncle Al couldn’t actually fall asleep with the way his body just couldn’t stop reacting amusingly at the news that one of his rivals had been the victim of a sudden car accident. One that I, his beloved nephew, was behind of.

And while this very ordeal had also lead to the acquisition of a new occupant of the manor in the form of a particularly excited Spider sinner, he really didn’t have any issue with what I had done to Vox. At least, nothing less than what I had already done. What really got the Radio Demon worried was the fact that my action was going to have a reaction. Considering Valentino’s recent mood, the fact his boyfriend – or ex, like seriously they’ve been breaking up and getting back together way too many times now – had been struck like that.

One thing was handling a debtor that was doing a fine job dodging his thugs, another was taking steps into making an example out of the poor bastard behind that hit-&-run situation. I was a lucky guy, but never one that loved to flaunt that around when the situation didn’t offer a chance of bailing from danger. It wasn’t me being a coward at this point, it was all about being able to not get murdered by one of Hell’s finest overlords and more of his minions.

To prevent things to get too spicy, Alastor decided to pull me out of work for two days and see if he could get Valentino and Vox to stop being this pushy about getting Molly. Jokes aside, the TV bastard had entered Uncle Al’s turf without telling him anything about it, thus breaching a few deals they had made a while ago. Which meant that, despite the damage he suffered, Vox was in the wrong and he was going to risk a little more than a case of failed Isekai teleportation. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to him, but Alastor seemed confident that this situation was going to solve two problems at once.

I didn’t question more since he was rather tight-lipped about it, but I was certain he wasn’t just raving at this point. Still, as the Radio Demon left his home to start his day around Hell, I was stuck to handle a problem that was my responsibility for the time being.

“Molly, get off the ceiling!” I half-yelled as my early attempts of reasonably bring her down from her current perch had failed. We were in the living room right by the fireside and… she was staring up and closely to the mounted head of the demonic deer-like creature that Uncle Al had set just above the fiery sight.

The girl giggled and her attention remained to the staring contest she was entertaining with the dead animal.

“But why? This is so fun!”

I frowned at that statement, failing to see how what she was doing was actually anything interesting. The monster was dead, its eyes were all glassy and unalive, and I was really trying to be the mature one of the situation. As much as I wanted to waste a few hours napping or trying to get through the whole phone issue I had discussed with Loona, I knew that until I was completely sure Molly wasn’t planning to do anything detrimental to herself, me, or the building itself, I couldn’t do any of that.

So here I was, babysitting someone that had become my responsibility after almost dying. Alastor did explain what our current situation was. Since Molly came close to die-die and lose her soul forever, the magical bond we had was a symbiotic one in most part. While there was no serious obligation to force her to do what I told her to, my life was now tied to her. If she died, I wouldn’t feel anything, but if I died for some unknown reason, then she was going to die too.

The spider girl depended on me when it came to well being. It was in her best interest to keep an eye out and make sure I didn’t get hurt. Which was a tall order, but one that she didn’t have much of a choice if she wanted to live. I promised her that I would have found a solution to break the bond the moment I knew how to safely do that. She was fine with that… but then again, she was more interested in poking at my face as she discovered I wasn’t a sinner.

Beyond that mess of a situation, there was also the fact that her dying state in which I retrieved her in was telling that Vox had somehow gained hold of Angelic Weapons. Or equipment that was forged by those since Alastor took a moment to remind me that some people in Hell knew how to reforge Angelic Steel in tools that could be used by Demons, Imps, and Sinners alike to kill each other.

The issue wasn’t truly that Vox had something like that. Every Overlord was more than capable of owning any kind of ‘cheaty’ tools to get an advantage to the others. The real problem stemmed from the fact that Vox decided to use it on someone like Molly. At first I couldn’t understand why he would go this far since it would have been more convenient for him to capture her and send her alive back to Valentino. Heck, even as the girl started to explain how she ended up in that predicament and what happened between the beginning and the conclusion of that one-sided fight, I couldn’t see anything that would have warranted this kind of behavior.

Then she decided to bring up how Valentino wasn’t exactly pursuing her for the debts, but for a relation she had that had worked closely with the Moth Demon. Molly continued to add that only that just recently her brother had cut ties with the overlord and that he joined something of a ‘redeeming hotel or something that silly’, which brought us back in a full circle.

Alastor confirmed it himself that her older sibling worked at the ‘Happy Hotel’ and that it would have been best to contact him to avoid future misunderstanding. It didn’t happen the day before because it was fairly late, but today she was supposed to call him through the hotel’s phone number the Radio Demon had left for us to use. And as I remembered this, I finally got the brilliant way to get her off that mounted head.

“Molly, didn’t you have to call your brother now?”

The question had her tense up, her attention shifting swiftly towards me and, before I knew it, she was descending at incredible speed. Moments later, I realized how soft the carpet really was as it tanked a good part of the impact as I was forcefully slammed on the ground, a giggling spider happily landing on me as her pillow. I also learned that some of the curves of my newest responsibility weren’t just made of fluffy material. And I felt then a lot as she ‘unconsciously’ pressed onto me before sitting up on my chest.

Seriously, I could still remember how troublesome it had been to get her to sleep. She was really interested in sharing the bed with me because of the ‘bond requiring closeness’, receiving support from Uncle Al despite him saying that there was no need for that moments earlier. The teasing factor was one thing, another was to be subjected to some aggressive flirting from someone like Molly.

“Ta-dah!”

“My back...” I muttered weakly, finally granted some mercy as she quickly stood up from me.

Once I was up and well recovered from that little situation, I was pulled in a tight hug by the overly-excited girl. I patted her upper back and she gave me one last squeeze before letting go of me.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Oh My Gosh~! It’s been a while since I last spoke with Angie, I remember him saying that the place was owned by Lucifer’s daughter- but she couldn’t be bad, she looks nice- then again Velvet looks nice too but she is scary and all of that.”

“Molly-”

“Do you think he will be happy? No, actually… do you think he will be angry since I forgot to call him two days ago?”

“Potentially speaking, many would be angry if you delayed a call by two days. But you also got yourself in a bad situation that left you unable to try calling.”

“Yeah, I guess that should justify things...”

There was silence, her eyes were on the phone and I expected for her to reach for it any moments now. But the more I waited, the more I realized that this very moment wasn’t going to come to an end by her own hands.

“Molly-”

“Sorry, it’s just… what if on the other side is the daughter of Lucifer?”

“You can try to talk to her. I’m sure she can’t get you through the phone.”

… “What if you-”

“I will stop you there,” I interrupted. “I’m not speaking with the hotel owner if she is on the other side.”

“B-But-”

“Molly, I believe that I pissed her father by killing an Exorcist, I really don’t want to get to know her until I know from indirect sources that she will not kill me the moment she learn I’m that guy.”

…

“What if I gave you something in return if you try to get them to pass Angie?”

“There is nothing that would get me to try and-”

“I can suck your dick.”

“ **Ah-** no.”

She huffed. “Why not?”

“I believe you would be happy if I said yes. And not just because you would be able to dodge that predicament.

“And what would be wrong in that?”

“I care for you as a friend. I don’t want to cheapen that.”

…

“Oh,” She replied in a brief moment of surprise. “Really?”

“You might be gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean I want to jump your bones.”

Molly’s face reddened through her thin layer of fur at the compliment, and I took this opportunity to pick up the phone myself, gracing her with a frown.

“If I get a death warrant on my head, you’re coming to oblivion with me.”

A tiny smile appeared on her visage. “I guess so~.”

Sighing, I started to prepare the number down on the phone. I brought the receiver to my ear and I waited for someone to pick up.

I hoped that it was Alastor, or even ‘Angie’ himself so I could be spared from having to endear any conversations with someone I should be frightened about. Eventually, someone did pick up but… I felt incredible panic rising up as I quickly realized who it was.

“ **Hello! This is the reception of the ‘Happy Hotel’, how may I help you? Are you interested in becoming a customer or-** ”

“Hello, I’m kind of trying to get in contact with one of your clients,” I interrupted with a tiny hint of nervousness. _Seriously, how am I supposed to address the big boss’ lone child?_ “Actually, it’s more me speaking with you so I can leave the conversation between him and his sister.”

“ **Oh? Oh, I see. I suppose you have a name I can ask to...** ”

“Molly calls him ‘Angie’,” I continued tensely and I heard a hum from the other side.

“ **I believe you are referring to Angel Dust. I will call him now and ask if he knows anyone with that name.** ”

“Thank you, Ms. Magne.”

“ **Oh, it’s Charlie,** ” The owner replied. “ **Many believes I’m not… reachable. But I am. I want to help.** ”

“I’m… glad to hear that, Charlie,” I answered slowly. “I’m… Alan.”

“ **Nice to meet you, Alan. Now, let me get Angel Dust so we can get this entire situation solved.** ”

I nodded, waiting patiently as I knew it was going to take a while from the sound of it. There was a pause and I didn’t wait for someone else to pipe in as I gave the phone to Molly. She picked it, bringing it close to her right ear as she waited for someone in there to speak up.

The girl then suddenly tensed up and squealed. “Angie!”

The words from the other side of the call were muffled from me, but the way Molly was answering to some simple questions from her clearly worried big brother made it easy for me to predict what kind of conversation they were having.

At first the focus was on making sure she was alive, well, and not a hostage. She quickly gave a general understanding of her situation, elaborating on why she was now stuck with me and why she was going to lay low for a while.

At the mention of Valentino, ‘Angel Dust’ seemed to get angrier by the way his voice felt louder for those few moments. I continued to listen as much as I could from my current position, and I waited for Molly to be done with that call. Soon enough, I grew a little bit distracted as I started to fiddle with one of my jacket’s sleeves. Boredom was sure making the dumbest things more amusing than they should.

Still, I felt surprises as I saw the young woman placing down the phone, clearly done with the call and now giving me a serious look.

“Can I suck your-”

“No.”

… “That sucks.”

I cringed really hard at that ill-timed pun.

“Molly, can you like… go back staring at that mounted head.”

“I want to stare at a head,” She replied flatly. I was sure she was referring to my dick again, but she spoke up once more. “And I’m staring at it right now.”

Oh?

The girl pulled me in another hug and soon she was giving me an intense look. Now, this could have gone one way or another… and right now, it went a completely different way as I expressed a new nuisance caused by the spider sinner.

“Molly?”

“Hm?”

“Stop groping my butt.”

She giggled, tilting her head to the side. “Nope~!”

_**Those are going to be trying days for what is left of my sanity...** _

\------------d-d-d-d----------------

A miracle has happened. Just a little bit after lunch, a phenomenon that blessed me with peace and quiet unfolded in front of me.

Occupying my bed as hers, a sleeping Molly snored contently onto my pillow, marking it with some of her drool while she rested without a care for this world. I stared at the scene for a while as I had returned to my room to pick up a couple of things and I found her in there. She looked incredibly peaceful, and, while I knew that she had planned out to leave a genuine mark on the bed, I could see she was really asleep as I found her like this.

I remember her taking a leave for the bathroom once we were done for lunch, Molly seemed to enjoy the cordon bleu I had prepared for her and she even expected for a moment that there was a second and a third share to offer to her once she was done with the first one. It was kind of adorable since it was there where a cute kind of childishness came out of her when she was told the truth. Still, I hadn’t expected to find her in my bed of all places. I was annoyed by the fact she literally took over my poor bed and she was definitely going to try and make it hers in the near future if I wasn’t careful enough about it.

Despite these thoughts, I still decided to exploit this opportunity to begin addressing a couple of things I had to handle while I was free of any duties around Molly. First, I started to study the ‘phone situation’ and tried to check if there was a way to solve it. Magic seemed to be the key for it, but I doubted I was going to get something prepared by my own hands. I would have to check and investigate for anyone able to create phones that aren’t traceable by Vox.

Surely someone had thought about it and had been allowed to get through with this thanks to other overlord. If not, then I didn’t have an answer as to why the TV Demon hadn’t taken over Hell right now. I just couldn’t imagine how someone as strong as he should be if this was true decide against becoming the new boss of Hell. Technically he could have accomplished that, yet from what I could tell from his actions, he wasn’t overpowered.

This setback didn’t deter me from resuming where I had finished practicing when it came to Voodoo as I found a couple of books to read from. I didn’t have much to work from, but I was rather confident that a couple of tricks could have been used to prevent any sneaky infiltration within a building from malicious presences if I was quick enough to place down a couple of symbols with chalks. It wasn’t much, but I knew that some overlord tended to try this kind of trick against their enemies.

This house was already warded to prevent that kind of problem, but this skill was definitely going to help if I ended up in a situation that required me to delay the approach of a stronger threat. After getting the seals memorized, I proceeded to finally move to a less pressing concern of mine.

The line was clear and so I expected to be quickly connected to the other side. Sitting on one of the couches by the living room, I waited for the call to be answered and… it was.

“ **Look, I don’t know who you are, but I got a massive hangover and-** ”

“Hey.”

Loona stopped the moment she heard my voice.

“ **Oh, it’s you.** ”

“Yep, sorry for causing you that ‘massive hangover’.”

“ **Argh, it’s… it’s not you. The alcohol was shit,** ” The hellhound rebuked. “ **But seriously, how are you?** ”

“Didn’t get much of a hangover problem, but I ended up with a brand new form of headaches.”

“ **Oh? Did you fuck someone or what?** ”

I snorted. “I would say the person I ended up rescuing yesterday is actively trying to get in my pants,” I remarked. “She means well but… she can be a pest at times.”

“ **Wind that shit up again. ‘Rescue’? What happened?** ”

Sighing, I began explaining to her the events that unfolded the night before after we were done with our hang out. I was careful to not mention just yet about the magical bond I now had with Molly. Sure, it wasn’t that big of a deal… but I didn’t need to make misunderstandings through the phone. I could tell the young woman was slightly pissed at the fact that now I had someone living in the house beyond Uncle Al and… I could feel something else in her tone. I just couldn’t decipher it with how quiet she was at certain times.

“ **Fucking hell, Alan. One day without causing a mess.** ”

I huffed. “As if this was all planned. I’ll have you know that I would make those events way cooler if I had any control over those.”

“ **You definitely would make them cringier**.”

“That’s a nasty rebuke,” I flatly pointed out. “Like seriously, ouch.”

“ **Fuck off, you love it when someone reminds you how much of a little, frightened guy you really are.** ”

“Says the one that can’t even call her legal father ‘dad’,” I shot back, hearing a little bit of a growl on the other side. “Also, on a serious note, is the headache worsening?”

“ **Just… a tiny bit. I’m waiting for the others to get back from killing their target before going back to bed. I really need to slam my snout on a pillow.** ”

“Glad to hear you aren’t planning to get drunk again.”

“ **I might like beer, but I’m not stupid enough to kill my brain. I need it to get the money flow,** ” Loona remarked. “ **Plus I don’t want Blitz to be on my ass for skipping sleep hours. I swear, he adopted me a little before I was eighteen, and he thinks that he is my real dad.** ”

…

“I don’t… want to take sides here, but he does seem to care a lot about you, Loona.”

“ **I know, it sounds weird for me to just ignore or criticize his shitty parenting despite the fact he is a nice guy and he really cares, but… I don’t like being pressured like that.** ”

“That’s a fair reason. Just don’t allow that to make you say stupid things. I know you care, just… in your own way.”

“ **...I guess that’s one way to say that. Still, I wanted to ask you a couple of simple questions. Nothing too big.** ”

I blinked, nodding to myself. “Sure, do ask.”

“ **This girl, Molly. Is she… actually just a friend?** ”

I was actually surprised by that query. I could understand where it was coming from but… I could tell there was a little more than confusion pushing for this question to be heading the few others that were about to come.

“Well yeah. I’ve meet her a little after we first met,” I replied truthfully. “I mean, she tries to jump at my bones, especially after she spoke with her brother, but I never gave her the chance to execute any of her plans.”

“ **Just asking since, you know, didn’t want to get the wrong impression.** ”

_And yet it feels like there is something more than that. What are you hiding from me, Loona?_

“It’s alright. I get that there were bits of my explanation that seemed to suggest a little more than that.”

“ **New topic, there was something else I wanted to know,** ” The girl inquired about with a curious voice. “ **You mentioned you worked as a bartender up above. I was planning to make a solo trip on the living world to try out some of the bars there and see if the alcohol there is better than down here.** ”

It was. The beer was definitely crappier here than back home. I had drunk and tested a lot of beers, so I could tell that things served her were of lower quality.

“ **Since you got some experience with that stuff, I wanted to know if you could give me a tour of good places. I don’t want to get stuck in shittier ones.** ”

“I mean, I can try to give my best. Not all pubs are the same everywhere,” I replied with a sigh. “Still, I should be able to pick up if unfamiliar places are good or not.”

I might not be the greatest expert in pubs, but I could tell with ease if one is run well and the quality of its products are good enough to spare a few nights by it.

“ **Next week. We go on Saturday and I… I think we can stay until Sunday morning.** ”

“Wouldn’t your dad-”

“ _**Blitz** _ **will not bother us. I had this thing planned for a while and he knows well enough that I deserve some time on my own,** ” She interrupted flatly. “ **Do you have anything to say about the day? Anything that got you busy?** ”

“No. Nothing right now. I guess it’s a date.”

“ **No...** ” Loona refused with a quieter but still strong tone. I felt close, yet far to get her to ignore the teasing altogether. Nonetheless, the conversation didn’t continue beyond that. She stopped the discussion by bringing up how the rest of the group was back from their mission and that it would have been annoying to keep up with both tasks.

I said I didn’t mind, allowing her to put an end to the call and… leave me to think what to do next.

**Before I knew it, I felt hit by a wild gust of tiredness and… I slowly fell asleep on the couch. A dream seemed to exploit my current state of tiredness, and I was pulled in another memory of sort.**

\----------d-d-d-d------------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d--------

_**Two children, they were alone by the pond near home. It was a small place of reunion for the duo from the looks of it.** _

Nestor was patiently working a fishing rod, muttering some quick whispers to Alastor as the young brother followed his sibling’s instruction on how to handle the lengthy time behind their current activities.

“It’s all about patience,” The older boy repeated. “You have to play the long game in those circumstances since fishes are… slow to pick up the baits at times.”

Al nodded, smiling quietly as he felt really at ease now that neither mother or father were there to disturb their peace. It was one of those few precious time where he could happily smile without having to hide away any displeasure. A tiny scowl would once or twice in a while appear on his face, just to display his modest irritation at the activity they were trying to get through as brothers.

Fishing wasn’t… as ‘simple’ as hunting. Sure, it was still predators against preys, but the capacity for the predator to capture their target was limited, almost too difficult for anyone too impatient. He could remember how father used to tell them about the difference between being a hunter and being a predator. Everyone with a good weapon or traps can easily become a hunter, but a predator went a couple of steps beyond.

The predator lurked, they study the nature that could or not be familiar to them and… after making enough plans to employ against their target. They struck.

Alastor blinked as he saw his own fishing rod starting to shake. Panic filled him as he tried to use his own hands to pull the white string out of the water. This effort was stopped by his brother, Nestor jumping in and rushing to pull by the proper mechanism. The younger sibling stopped just in time to see the string swiftly retracted as the small fish still biting at the bait was unable to get itself out of the trap before he was pulled up.

Another catfish, this one looked feisty. Differently from the others, this was special since it was the first fish Alastor had ever caught.

“It’s yours,” Nestor had commented proudly, patting at his shoulder. Like father would usually do with him when he accomplished something like that. Alastor was happy, he had managed to get his first fish and…

**And then it was all ruined when mother discovered. She was angry, annoyed that they had ‘wasted time dilly-dallying’ instead of doing more chores around the house. There was a sense of anger that bubbled within Alastor at the sight of the bucket filled with water and fishes being yanked off his brother’s hold and thrown out of the window and into the garden. A waste. A complete, frustrating… waste.**

Yet Alastor smiled. But it wasn’t a smile to make her mother happy as she punished the ‘real problem’ like she would usually do. No, that smile… was aimed at his brother as he didn’t give up despite that horrible routine.

_**If only Al could be as strong as Nestor. If only, for once, they could switch roles so that he could show he could take it. To give his brother some mercy as he offered himself to the deranged parent of theirs.** _

And I stared at all of this with a sense of abstract dismay. How sick in the mind had been Alastor’s mother? Why would she go this far?

_**What was missing from this big picture?** _

\-----------d-d-d-d----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d--------

**AN**

**Did y’all watch Helluva Boss Episode 3? Poor Looney got friendzoned. She needs some head-patting.**


	8. Slaying Boomstick

**Chapter 7: Slaying Boomstick**

I was no longer ‘grounded’!

This detail should have normally gained the happy squeaks of children being deprived of playing outdoors with friends and animals. Sadly, for me it meant that I was supposed to do things that weren’t easy or simple to get through without risking some issues coming up along the way.

In this case, the ‘thing’ was actually a shopping spree directed at Imp City. Alastor granted me the chance to finally check on expanding my pitiful arsenal to a newer gun. A revolver with possibly unlimited ammo was a good thing, but there wasn’t just enough packing in case I faced something way bigger than the usual toughs. And considering the people I have hit with my fun car, I could only agree to this need.

Two locations, one to browse for the new addition to my arsenal, and the last place being where I could get some answers regarding the Angelic Scythe I was now owing. The thing had been with me for a long time now and, knowing how deadly and powerful it was, it just felt like a waste to not use when I needed to pack the heat in close quarters while sparing myself the need to train my aim at someone or something.

Uncle Al was surprisingly ‘cultured’ regarding the arms shops here in Hell, but he seemed rather adamant in not allowing me to check any of those here in Pentagram City. I could tell that it was tied to my current problems, yet I could tell there was also something more than just that. He didn’t even tell me how his last encounter with the three Vs went, only that things should be fine until I kept away from their path while they were strolling. Which was fine since I wasn’t planning to go around and pester any of them.

Still, preventing a problem was better than curing the issue when it happened. I needed to get some more firepower at my disposal and I was ready to finally stretch my bones for a small trip out of Pentagram City for something that I genuinely wanted to handle as quickly as doable. Only issue was that I wasn’t alone for this jolly ride.

“You know, I don’t remember being in this car before. Well, maybe I can’t remember because… I was dying right in this seat!” Molly’s exclamation was, surprisingly not so surprisingly, driven by giddiness. “Gasp! This is a sign. I call forever dibs on this seat from now on.”

“You are awfully happy with that achievement,” I pointed out with a frown and she grinned happily at me.

“Well, this is the very place I was when you saved me from certain death. Then you gave me a chance to live beyond that day and...” Her smile widened even more. “And I bet it will also be the place where you will take me, plow me hard and call me your little slu-”

“And that deprives you of talk privilege for a while,” I interrupted flatly, feeling relieved that I had my mask on as I knew that if she knew how red my face was at that sudden smutty comment she would have pressed this advantage for more. I wasn’t shy to that kind of language, but I was quick to grow embarrassed if it was those quick and partly unexpected quips of hers. “You may use the radio while we are moving.”

Molly huffed, her mood damped as she looked at her side window. Despite her attempt to not give me any attention, she still reached to turn on the radio and… I was slowly reminded why Alastor said that doing so with the normal channels was a terrible idea.

“ _**-And now, please allow me to give way to Verosika’s latest hit! Vacay to Bonetown!** _”

The song was slow and particularly smooth-paced. It was the first time I heard something of this unusual genre, but… I was quite sure I have heard someone during my bartender training mentioning that some pop stars on Earth were starting to make new songs like this one. The tune was catchy… until I felt something wrong about it. My focus started to get dizzy and I was capable of keeping my eyes on the road just barely as I caught a couple of words in the lyrics that made me realize what the problem really was.

The woman singing was a Succubus. It was fitting with the sensual tone the song was building up and… why Molly was silently trying to reach with one of her hands my crotch. She paused as my right hand moved to swiftly turn the radio off and return peace and quiet within the vehicle. Eyes wide open, the Spider girl glanced at me with an inquisitive expression and I sighed.

“If you keep moderate with the lewd talking, you may regain the privilege of speaking. Only if you can hold the worst in. Understood?” I asked and she nodded, grinning brightly.

“Sorry,” She quietly admitted and… I actually frowned at that tone. We spent the rest of the time left for the trip chatting about what our plans were for the week, and she mentioned she was still going to try and visit her brother the moment she was certain things were ‘calm enough to wander around’.

A few minutes passed and, after I was done parking the car, we entered the first place we had to check for today. The ‘ **Maximilianus Weapons of Maximum Carnage** ’ had a name that was matched by the insane amount of guns, ammo crates and other military-grade equipment that I really didn’t expect to find in a normal gun shop. Then again, this was Hell and… yeah, things were also cheaper than expected.

_People really made the business of ‘killing others’ a common shopping issue._

Molly gasped again, looking around as if a little girl were being given the chance of checking the biggest toy store in the world. Drooling while her eyes were comically wide open before the lengthy list of things that were on display and other things that were just visible on the distance considering how big of a shop this one actually was.

“There are so many guns here! I didn’t know that a place like this existed- heck, in Pentagram City there isn’t a shop this massive,” The girl exclaimed eagerly. “Oh, can I look around? I wanted to buy something for Angie when I visited him. A gift or something like that.”

“I mean, are you going to use your money for that right? It’s a gift so-”

“Yep, my cash. So… I will go now, bye~!”

And… the young woman was out of my sight. The humongous room was a pure maze of walls and guns, and other equipment that would have made a weapon fanatic have multiple wet dreams at once. I was a little hyped for the place, but I was controlled about my reaction as I began to look around for the things Alastor mentioned I had to check for.

Rifles were a big no. While I could do well with some long-range punishment to dispense against my foes, my interest currently lied over something that was favorable in close range. Something flexible but packing a punch that was meant to do the job it was required to. Kill its targets with a single shot.

It was clear that the Radio Demon was implying that I needed to check for shotguns, and I really was happy about it. I knew how to work shotguns since I was fourteen but… it’s been three years since I last used a gun of that caliber and I wasn’t really sure I could handle the knockback like I used to. I still looked around for anything that managed to catch my attention and, eventually, I delved deep enough to find a couple of old WW2 equipment. Some were even older with a couple of WW1 stuff sticking around and disrupting the mostly linear genre I was browsing.

Lots of submachine guns, assault guns, I found a couple of Panzerfausts and even a Recoilless Rifle, one of those Airborne-only Bazookas. Nothing that actually managed to catch my attention since I was looking at something quite specific. I was just studying the quality of a Sjogren shotgun, when I felt a strange emotion wrap around my chest. An impulse of sorts that was coming right from a nearby cache. I settled down the gun I had been checking on, my eyes narrowing as I tried to find out the thing that had me ‘pulled’ into it.

I paused as I found the origin of the unexpected impulse. I blink and… and then I proceeded to take the familiar M1897 shotgun in my hands. I just couldn’t believe it that it was the same as the one I was thinking about. It even had the same engravings on the right side of the wooden section of the pump that great-grandpa had mentioned having carved back during his active service in the Pacific. A sharp ‘N’ followed by a deer-like drawing.

_What is this doing here?_

I could remember Nestor showing me pictures of it and saying that he had lost it in the War against Japan. By all means, this shouldn’t be here and… yet it was. Ignoring the confusion behind the ‘how’ this tool of deadly close encounters was here, I proceeded to bring it to the counter and see if the shop-keeper knew anything about it.

The imp was behaving pompously as his name, Maximilianus, demanded him to be. Standing atop three small boxes to boost his height, the guy was still quite friendly towards paying customers but… he seemed to turn serious the moment I approached with the gun.

“My, oh my. It would seem like this cursed item has finally found the fool it was meant to be taken by. I lost way too many good assistants trying to stupidly handle that murderous trap.”

I frowned at that ‘greeting’ and I sarcastically added mine. “And hello to you too, sir.”

“None of that. I guess you are here to buy it.”

“Something like that, yes. But I would first inquire about how this ended up here since, well, I know that its former owner lost it in the Pacific.”

The imp frowned. “Truly? From what our specialists could deduce, this gun was retrieved after a Demon was pushed back on the realm of mortals. Common business a few decades ago, since many of the current overlords of Pentagram City tried to make their way back to the living world.”

Now it was my turn to frown since that didn’t make any sense. I believe Great-Grandpa Nestor would have mentioned fighting some Demon in his lifetime and…

_Could it be that Uncle Al is… part of this?_

I had to ask him before drawing any awkward conclusion. Surely there was a sillier explanation than the unpleasant worry that had slowly gained hold over my mind. There had to be something I wasn’t missing, something that the dreams were trying to tell me that could help me understand.

_Then again, would he answer something this important?_

Alastor had been fairly open about his connection with Nestor. The dreams were keen to corroborate that, beyond the unpleasant woman that was great-great-grandma, the two were fairly close and in a good relationship. He never mentioned anything bad about Nestor, and I remembered the old man being also on the same page about his memory about Uncle Al.

_But still, if they had been fine with each other to the very end, why did he dissuade anyone in the family to ever approach the old family manor?_

That question just was too important to gloss over and I knew something had to have happened. These visions, those weren’t normal by any definition and I knew that it was tied to some dark secret of the two I wasn’t aware about. And I needed to know somehow.

_Would Rosie help?_

No. She was more attached to Uncle Al than me, and she would rat me out if she misunderstood my concerns to be driven by wrong reasons. Which is why… I needed to think more about it. Despite the fact that I was done with my shopping, with Molly still busy bolting back and forth between the aisles to check ammo and weapons alike, I decided to stray away from the counter and check on something else I could have picked. Guns were nice, but I wasn’t going to say no to something sharp and quick to draw into action without major delays. Something that could actually cut and kill any poor bastard that ended up attacking me.

Knives. There were numerous types and from numerous cultures. Some were really traditional, and I paused before a Kukri or two before my mind reminding me that I wasn’t exactly prepared to handle something as complex as that. It had to be something I was still able to use and knew something about.

I paused before the switchblades section and… I sighed. I sure was no longer into that kind of poison, so I skimmed after just a look until I was in the next cache of small doom-givers. I checked something that I could still work with and… I paused over a butterfly knife. I doubted I could use one, but I always wanted to try using one of those fun things.

Slowly but surely I began understanding how the bits of the blades moved, building up confidence as I started to grow faster and faster with my pace until-

“That’s some nice moves,” A voice called on the side, making me lose focus and actually get the blade to almost cut my glove. I caught the hilt just in time and got the entire blade sheathed before glancing at the intruder that almost got me to cut myself.

The girl, an imp, was looking at me with her head slightly tilted on the left side to catch my actions with the butterfly knife. Atop her head, two black horns stretched upward with three thin white stripes encircling around those. Her grayish-black hair was styled in a messy bob, with some of her bangs covering half of her right horn. On her left cheek a tiny beauty mark and her lips had some black lipstick applied to those.

Her current outfit consisted of a simple black choker, black crop top with gold buttons near to the straps, right where the upper section met with the torso section. She also had torn black pants, fingerless black gloves, and black footwear that didn’t completely cover her hoof-like toes.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since I tried my hand at these kinds of blades.”

“You didn’t lose any of that experience, rusty-hands,” She chirpily pointed out and I nodded.

“Some habits just don’t leave,” I admitted quietly, swiftly regaining the bearing of the situation instead of musing over the past. “Still, I didn’t expect to find a knife-enthusiast today.”

“And that makes the two of us. I’m Millie.”

I smiled, feeling like I had heard that name before… “Alan.”

“My husband was finishing shopping for new equipment. I was just checking if there were new additions yet. It would seem like I will have to come back next week to see some finer knives,” The imp explained. “What about ya?”

“Trying to find a good substitute to a handgun in case I lost my gun during work. To avoid… awkward turns during my shifts.”

“Oh, then I would suggest a normal military-grade knife. Nothing too flashy, or ‘cool’. Action requires flexibility.”

I nodded at that serious recommendation and I was surprised when she passed me a knife she recovered from the cache in front of us. Small, sharp and… strong-looking. The metal was reinforced from the looks of it and I knew that despite the nice price this was a good product.

“You have experience with this one?”

“I have tons of those back home. It makes for a good tool to have around when the danger is around the corner.”

I nodded again, leaning back to the cache to retry three more of those daggers. They were cheap, so I was still within budget with those and the shotgun. With this done, I left Millie to wait for her husband to be done with his shopping spree, and I found Molly was already by the counter and… arguing with the owner of the shop.

“Can’t it be cheaper?” She whined and the shop-keeper huffed.

“Nope. It’s that or you can pick this ‘gift’ and get it back to the shelf you found it.”

I sighed, shaking my head when I arrived close enough to do something about the scene. “What’s going on?”

The imp huffed. “The girl wanted a discount. I gave her a 5% off, and she wanted more.”

“It’s old-”

“But still commonly used by just a small group of people here in Hell,” He interjected flatly, lifting up a modified version of the M1928. It had a drum magazine which was commonly used by gangsters. The Chicago Typewriter, many used to call it and now Molly was trying to buy it for her brother. I was confused why such an iconic weapon would be considered a gift to someone. Unless her family was… actually, I don’t think I asked her much about her family. Maybe it was right to believe her siblings and parents were part of the mafia.

“Why do you need a discount, Molly?”

…

“I said-”

“It’s a little beyond what I have on myself,” The girl admitted with some annoyance. “The price has risen since last time I saw it on display.”

“Mostly because people are known to destroy those as a sign of humiliation to those that use them,” Maximilianus explained. “That’s why those cost a lot more than before.”

…

“How much are you short of?” I asked, feeling rather unwilling to handle bartering for a better deal.

“I don’t need-”

“How much?” I pressed on, keeping a calm tone while saying this.

…

“Twenty.”

I shrugged, pulling two bills of fifty while settling the knives on the counter too. “This should be enough to pay anything.”

The imp nodded without hesitation. “Do you need the change or-”

“Keep it. I find this shop well-furnished and… I doubt many stop to say this, but I will probably come back to buy her frequently,” I explained with a smile. “I’m sure that, despite it being a little, the shop will enjoy a little bit of money from a future frequent client.”

He smiled, almost chuckling at what I was implying and bid us a good day with a genuine voice.

_**With that out of the way, we just had one last thing left before getting back to the manor.** _

\---------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d-----

Final stop before going home.

This time the place was set on the outskirts, away from the bigger squares of buildings where Imp City’s life was most active. No, we were going to the small ‘uninhabited’ section of the settlement that hadn’t been used by normal citizens. A place where only the deranged and the most depraved were known to lurk around and enjoy tending ambushes to any poor unarmed individual unwittingly passing by.

I wasn’t afraid of this since I had decided to wander around the area while holding my newly-bought shotgun over my shoulders and looking left and right while I tried to calm down Molly.

“It’s fine-”

“You had to pay because I wasn’t prepared for the big price. I feel so stupid but- I will get everything back.”

“No need. We’re friends,” I flatly answered, but she didn’t seem to catch on what I had said for a little while.

“How about a 2% interest so we can avoid having some troubles about… what?”

“Um?” I rebuked quietly and she gave me a serious look.

“What did you say now? The reason why it’s fine.”

…

“We are friends,” I repeated calmly. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Just that it doesn’t make… much sense,” The girl admitted. “You aren’t that happy that I’m around.”

…

“Molly?”

She blinked. “Yes Alan?”

“Just because we disagree a lot, that doesn’t mean I don’t like you as a friend,” I reminded her. “It’s natural that we found some elements we disagree a lot about. But we aren’t in a constant state of bickering.”

…

“So you don’t mind if I get crazy and… make you angry?”

“I mean, I get angry when you go out of your way to exaggerate on a couple of things. That doesn’t mean I stop liking you as a person,” I replied with a sigh. “You are a good person regardless of your… extreme quirks at times.”

She giggled. “That’s… nice. I mean it. I really didn’t expect to hear that,” She replied happily, before then adopting a serious look. “You know, since this part of town doesn’t have many people around, we could just… dive in an alley and I can give you head-”

“Molly, I just finished saying I wasn’t up for extreme comments,” I remarked and the girl just… giggled.

“I know,” Molly mentioned eagerly. “But I just like how fun you are when you are that flustered and still amused by my devious thoughts.”

…

“I’m not amused.”

“Li-ar~!”

I could only sigh at the refusal to that absolute truth. Still, our conversation was cut short as we actually arrived at our destination. The two-floors building looked particularly run-down and possibly abandoned at a first look. Yet Uncle Al had been quite certain that someone was inside there and handling specific kinds of orders regarding Angelic weapons.

We entered the building and… we were greeted by a magical seal that activated the moment we made our first step into the entrance. My eyes widened as I felt a thin layer of something warm coat my entire body and then go away with the same speed it became apparent to my senses. Magic? It felt the most logical conclusion, so I stuck by that notion. Molly seemed to have felt it too by the way her posture tensed up to regard this development.

Despite this odd beginning, our combined attention was easily stolen when we heard the noise of someone slowly clapping their hands at us. Standing fairly tall, a little taller than Alastor, the blue-skinned Demon had short gray hair combed in a short cut that had its sides shaved. Black scleras over his light-green pupils, a bright white full-toothed smile showed a mix of creepy and warm. He was wearing a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up, with a dark-gray tie around his neck. Dark-brown pants keeping properly thanks to a dark belt that matched in shade with the color of his shoes.

“New clients. It’s been a long time since I received someone interested in my services,” The tall man said kindly, bowing slightly. “Welcome.”

I blinked, surprised by the unexpected warmth behind this greeting. “You are… Azzie?”

“That’s a name I’ve given to a couple of individuals,” The owner of this place admitted, his lips turning in a thin line at that inquiry. “But yes, I suppose you are tied to one of my close associates.”

“The Radio Demon,” I curtly added and his smile was back on his face.

“Ah, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. How is Alastor?”

“Well,” I replied. “Kind of peckish over the sudden increase of prices for... venison meat.”

The Demon hummed in agreement. “The economy keeps on fluctuating between price reductions and sudden increases. It’s only natural but hopefully things will be cheaper in a few months,” He answered readily. “So, how may I help you today. Do you need a blessing of sorts?”

“It’s about an Angelic weapon, sir,” I commented with a nod, ignoring how distracted Molly was at that very moment. Her attention was currently split between eyeing the shop-keeper and looking at the merchandise in display. Books, amulets, crystals, some sets of armor and a couple of normal-looking swords were currently set on various shelves all over the place.

“Oh? That’s a pleasant surprise,” He hummed happily. “And I suppose you have it on yourself?”

I nodded, bringing out the cylinder out of my jacket’s left pocket. His attention was quickly on my palm as I held out the object for him to look at.

“That’s quite odd. Your skin isn’t burning by merely touching the Angelic Steel,” Azzie mused with a serious tone. “The gloves aren’t affected by protective magic, which means that… you are a human.”

“Maybe I’m just born wrong,” I blurted out as a tactical defense at the sudden accusation, only for the demon to chuckle at my words.

“Maybe you are, but that doesn’t mean you are protected by the dangerous effects of holding a pure Angelic Weapon with ease. The fact you are doing so without trouble and… since the Scythe has bonded with you, it’s the only logical option.”

…

“Bonded?”

“No longer defending the fact you are a human?” The man sarcastically asked before nodding. “It’s not unusual for Angelic Weapons to be tamed by humans. It’s mostly tied to the reason those are used the first time they are drawn. I guess you didn’t use it to assault someone, but rather as a self-defense response to someone attacking.”

“The… Exorcist that tried to kill me when I first came by.”

“And you managed to get their weapon and use it against them? That’s a lucky event. I hope you understand that,” Azzie remarked with an awed look. “Still, I suppose you are here to gain an answer to use it. You wish to make use of something created by God Himself during your stay here in hell.”

I nodded. “It’s heavy-”

“That’s because it was fit to be used by warriors harshly trained in Heaven to be strong and well-disciplined,” He interrupted. “You might be able to use it. Eventually. But for now I suppose you can do with a replacement to start putting up some muscles while learning how to fight with that weapon.”

As he said this, he moved back to the nearby counter and returned with a small dark-gray cylinder.

“This is a weapon similar to the one you are using. The difference is that the presence of Angelic Steel is severely diluted in the metal making up this blade, and, while it can still permanently kill demons, sinners, you would still require to invest some time to handle real damage against them.”

“So it’s like training, but… I can still do something meaningful against my foes if I’m careful enough and don’t get too cocky.”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“I suppose this will do but… how much would this cost?” I asked, knowing that this was still going to be rather expensive. While it was a weapon with diluted Angelic Steel, it was still Angelic Steel. And that shit was pretty expensive from what I’ve read about books talking about this topic.

“Nothing.”

…

“What?”

“Or rather, think of this as a personal investment of mine to see how far you will go with the current standing you are in.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“You are in a peculiar position, young man. A human in Hell that can rely on the support of a prominent Overlord while also controlling an Angelic Weapon? You will be quite the big piece in the greater chessboard. Either… a Rook or a Queen.”

I didn’t exactly understand the references, but I merely nodded at his comment. I knew that this guy, this ‘Azzie’ was withholding something more about the circumstance but I could tell it wasn’t tied to the weapon he gave me. I was quick to mutter a ‘thank you’ and a ‘goodbye’ before leaving the building with Molly as quickly as I could.

The sight of the man looking at me and telling me an ominous ‘see you soon, then’ had me unnerved for a good few hours.

_**I don’t know why, but I feel like I have met someone dangerous today.** _

\--------------d-d-d-d-------------d-d-d-d----------

**AN**

**Ah! Alan made a new acquaintance… and he came close to find back Moxxie. Ah, the tease this author is~!**

**It will happen, just not this suddenly and without a good enough reasoning. It will be epic, it will be huge, it will be-**

_**EPIC~!** _


	9. Give me a Collar, Paint it Black

**Chapter 8: Give me a Collar, Paint it Black**

**Warning! Smut inside!**

Convincing Molly to go and visit her brother for a full day took a lot of time and effort. Most of the success had to be granted to Uncle Al to guarantee her safety while she was checking the ‘Happy Hotel’. No sudden enlistment into the staff or becoming a customer, just a family-driven visit to keep her distracted as I prepared for my ‘friendly hang out’ with Loona.

It wasn’t something done out of kindness. The time between acquiring the new weapons to aid me at work and the current day of the date was spent mostly working and getting through all those days without having to fear much of a little riot or two caused by drunk sinners. The mere display of the shotgun was enough to calm them all, and I was spared fairly simple but still strenuous a few days before it was the time for me to cash the favor in.

Still, I was quite sure that what really had the Radio Demon sold in giving me a freebie came from the fact I had recovered the old gun of great-grandpa. He recognized it and… he was actually confused about finding out that I found it since ‘the last time he saw it was well away from any entrance to Hell’. He was still happy of ‘reuniting’ with the weapon, sounding rather fond of it for some reason.

But what truly got me perplexed wasn’t the way he addressed the shotgun itself, but the inconsistency behind the fact he knew about it. Uncle Al himself confirmed that he had died in the early 30s, but that meant he shouldn’t have been able to actually see this gun before the moment I brought it to him since the War in the Pacific started in the early 40s and Nestor was discharged a little before the end of WW2. By all means, Alastor shouldn’t know what it was and who owned it and… yet he did.

It was quite disconcerting that something like this lifted plenty of suspicions about the Radio Demon’s knowledge of the timeline, but I decided to not press about it due to my own personal reluctance to ask. Maybe there was something I was missing, some details Uncle Al had yet to show or tell me. It was all a matter of time… maybe.

Despite that thought, I still had something fairly important to think about. I had to be ready for my date with Loona. And yes, while I didn’t expect it to be fancy since it was all going to stem from the interest of the hellhound to explore the living world and get to understand how things worked there, I wasn’t going to keep a minimalist approach about it.

I really wanted to make a good impression out of this, so I was quick to lay out a brilliant plan that should work with most locations we could end up appearing in. Not the finest bit of an idea I ever had, but still something that provided me with some guidelines to follow if things were lucky enough for me.

Taking the car and riding up to Imp City, I waited at the spot where Loona mentioned we were meant to get to the living room. It was a common alley, nothing special about it except a couple of trash cans filled with lots of magazines of various kinds, mostly porn-related stuff, and plenty of unhygienic crap that was ditched all over the floor and the bins.

The young woman didn’t take too much time to come by and she was holding what looked to be a fairly old book. A blink, then a smile and we both nodded at each other.

“Good day?”

“Could be better,” She replied flatly. “And it definitely will be if you don’t fuck things once we are on the other side.”

I could only frown at her words. “I’m not exactly planning to bail on this date.”

The response, created as a way to confirm my commitment and also tease her seemed to work perfectly. Loona could only huff, holding her blush as much as possible while opening the book and… using a spell to open a rift on the ground.

She willingly tripped forward to enter it and, being rather unfamiliar with the process itself, I decided to follow her example. So I tripped forward, allowing gravity to pull me on the other side and… push me into Loona. She yelped, surprised by my sudden arrival, and we both ended on the ground.

I rolled away as quickly as I could, helping her up before being subjected to a snarl from her.

“Jerk.”

“It’s not my fault you didn’t tell me how to enter a portal like that,” I rebuked back, taking a moment to realize that we were actually back in some normal city. From the scent of the sea muddled by pollution, I could only imagine this being one of those cities with big beaches. So we were either in the deep South or somewhere in California.

I removed my mask, walking up at the entrance of the alley to look around at the fact nobody was around. It was still lunchtime and so mostly nobody was around by the streets at the time. Just as I was distracted by this, a loud noise and bright light came from behind where I was standing. Turning back, I was greeted with a proper humanized version of Loona.

Her eyes were now a vibrant red with white sclera. She was a little shorter, possibly because she was no longer standing on paws, and she was just an inch away from being my equal in height. Her outfit remained mostly the same except for the fact that she was now wearing a pair of black socks and sneakers. Her choker no longer had spikes. Her head is shaved on the right side, an effort to match the different fur color on that specific side of her hair.

“What?” The girl muttered with the same voice, eyes narrowed at my gawking stare. “That ugly?”

The question had me frown in utter confusion. “Ugly? Loona, I think the truth is the opposite of that.”

It didn’t take her that long to realize what I had just said and she snorted. “Smartass.”

“It’s the truth,” I admitted without hesitation. “Still, we are here. Anything you want to check first?”

“I’m fucking hungry,” The young woman grumbled. “Been holding the need for a while now and… I would go for some chicken.”

I smiled. “I think I know the place.”

The local KFC was mostly packed with customers, but it still had enough vacancy to allow us to pick a table far from others. Loona was absolutely confused that a place like this existed, but her curiosity was severely outmatched by her hunger the moment she got the chance to check the menu. Since I could pay through online means, I was spared the trouble of having to find another way to make money, and it also gave us the chance to spend a proper day together without that kind of problem whatsoever.

The very moment the bucket filled with chicken wings was delivered to the table, it was suddenly emptied by the hungry young woman, and the sight, while absurd to the waitress that gave her the food, it proved to be fairly amusing considering that I didn’t expect Loona to be this unruly while eating.

I managed to eat my own meal in pure peace, enjoying the food served there for a while. It wasn’t a long stay due to the fact the loudness of some of the kids there was easily growing to annoy us both and we had other places to check instead of wasting time there once we were done eating. After paying at the counter, we began thinking up the next activity to entertain and we ended up making our way to check on some clothing shop.

At first, I wanted to visit Hot Topic, mostly because it seemed to fit well with Stylish Occult back in Hell, but I paused the moment I realized that it would have been a little too cliché. No, I had to improvise and check other places that could have enticed her interest and created some fascination for things that weren’t in hell.

The answer to this troublesome question manifested when I ended up trying my luck in the nearest music shop. While I didn’t know which genres really appealed to Loona, I allowed the now ‘human woman’ to pick something herself and… she seemed to find a couple of interesting catches while fishing for anything that interested her. The first band to hit her positively was Sabaton. Lots of history-based songs, powerful ones too, and she seemed to find connection just a minute in of listening to ‘Resist and Bite’.

Then it was the turn for something ‘classic’ and she ended up browsing what was available from Linkin Park. ‘Numb’, ‘Breaking the Habit’, ‘In the End’ and ‘Lost in the Echo’ seemed to garner her interest, same for a couple from Disturbed.

But what really had her entire attention stolen was Powerwolf, which turned out to be love at first listening when she was completely immersed in the song that was ‘Army of the Night’. I was there to see her reactions, and this last one had me hysterical due to how giddy she looked. It was almost like kid Loona was given the chance of buying as much Ice cream as she wanted.

I decided to buy her some discs since we both discovered her phone wasn’t geared to download these songs. The prices for a dozen of discs was fairly cheap, and she still had a frown when I moved in to pay for her.

“You know, I kind of understand how you have to be the one to pay for this kind of shit, but can I say that I’m getting pissed that you’re the one paying for it all?”

“Shouldn’t you be happy that someone is paying for this?” I asked back and she snorted.

“If it was a no-name jerk, then sure. But I think I know your fucking name and I fucking care about you.”

…

“I mean-” She stopped, noticing the little intense wording she used at the end of that sentence. “Shit, I just… fuck.”

“It’s alright. If it makes you feel a little better, I care about you too. A lot,” I added mirthfully, showing a kind smile rather than teasing her about it. Despite my best efforts, she huffed and narrowed her eyes at me for saying something like this.

“And what does that fucking mean? It definitely doesn’t sound like friendship.”

I blinked. “I guess it’s a little more than that. You’re… nice. Hot. And… funny?”

Just as I said those words, she pulled in the nearest alley and… I was confused. Something wet, plump and particularly needy was pressing onto my lips. A blink, my sight returned to normal as I realized how close Loona’s face was. And how she was kissing me with so much hunger and desire that I couldn’t help but ‘react’ to this while returning the favor and clashing my own tongue against her.

Loona seemed to realize that I was fairly happy about that move, and, instead of stopping, she began pressing herself onto me, grinding her body into mine. The intense smooching came to an end when she pulled away and grinned at me.

“Now, that’s some clear message, isn’t it?”

“D-Damn right,” I replied mirthfully, the suddenness taking me by brief surprise. “Still, I really want to know how big this message is.”

Her grin widened. “I know a place. But I really hope you are clean because I sure as Hell am going to enjoy the rest of the day off.”

I felt a little worried at this comment, but deep down I could only nod at her as we both made our way to hell and right to the place she mentioned we could go deeper than just mere kissing. A modest-sized room, a large bed, and lots of tension that was soon going to be unraveled.

_**Loona sat by the bed and soon we explored how deep we could go in our relationship.** _

\--------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d-------

Sex is amazing.

This very thought should be followed by someone screaming ‘no shit, Sherlock’ or something of the same intensity and coherence. Yet, I wasn’t exactly listening to common sense against this cringeworthy contemplation.

No, my attention was all aimed at the woman that was ferociously riding me. Loona was no rookie when it came to fucking, and from the way she was bouncing so happily up and down with my length deep in her, I had a clear understanding that I was nothing to scoff at. Maybe it was the fact this was my first time ever, and that I really wasn’t exactly sure how I was supposed to ‘measure myself’ when it came to this kind of staff. I was packing heat down below, that was without a doubt, but what really mattered after being well-equipped for the occasion was knowing how to get through with this to get your partner enticed by the activity and wanting for more. While also reaping the results for yourself that is.

I might have only videos and second-hand stories to rely on, but I was far from stupid and I just allowed my own instincts to take over on this particular matter. Once we were naked and ready to go at it, the process started and proceeded as naturally as it was supposed to. I was almost overwhelmed when she descended and took all the inches of my cock inside without hesitation. She grinned while doing so, almost trying to impose herself as the big boss of this entire ordeal.

I think she mentioned that she had slept with others, but that this was the first time she did so after a good date.

_Yet her bravado faltered as a chance to appear more experienced the moment she began moaning like crazy at the first few minutes of that funny session with me._

I was taken by surprise by the pure pleasure coming out of that intimate position, and the moment she started to grind herself on me just made the entire thing ten times better. I was far from beaten by that powerful sensation, but I now could say why many guys were so keen to just fuck chicks back in High School. Squeezing at her lovely behind, groping at her round rump that just felt full and ready to be loved this intensely, I aided her with the bouncing. By doing so I helped her increase the pace and feeling my soul just ascending to pure bliss at the doubled speed. I wasn’t letting go, and I wasn’t planning to come before she had. It was pure determination and natural endurance that got me far and… And eventually the climax had to come. A strong one at that.

She slammed herself down, trying to squeeze my shaft deep as the tip kissed her cervix and… I came. A lot. I felt a lot of pent-up frustration going out in a single move, filling her up with something to warm herself up with. White cream painted her tight walls warmly. Her breath was heavy as I leaned back, pulling out of her pussy and allowing some of the white to slowly flow out of her.

“That was… amazing,” I commented, feeling breathless for just a moment.

“Goddamn right I am,” Loona eagerly replied, giving me a sultry look. “You didn’t tell me you had some experience about it. If you had, I would have probably ruined shit and got straight for this point.”

…

“That’s... because I don’t.”

She frowned, expecting it to be a joke and… then her jaws dropped as I kept on looking at her with the same awkward expression.

“You fucking joking, right? I can’t just think that’s your first time and-”

“And what?”

“And it was fucking awesome,” She replied fiercely. “Holy shit, you can’t just tell me that it wasn’t good. How the fuck do you know what to do if you were a virgin.”

“Video. Lots of videos.”

…

“So you have some insight how to be a perverted fuck? Tell me the truth.”

…

“Maybe?”

“Alan-”

“Yes, I kind of have an understanding how to fuck you.”

“So you want to take charge?”

…

“Wait, are you really offering?”

“Prove me how good you really are and...”

“What?”

“And that means I popped your cherry.”

… “Congrats?”

“It also means that you are clean and… that makes things even better. For a moment I thought I was going to end up with a worse surprise. You know, I’ve dealt with Syphilis until last week,” She replied, sounding fairly relieved.

I, on the other hand, spared her a frown. “Wait, what?”

“I’m currently clean,” The hellhound replied flatly. “And we can go without condoms, I took plenty of precautions to avoid some awkward situations from happening. So… give me your best shot.”

I was a little spent, but far from burned out as the girl merely took another position. Getting off from me, she leaned her face down on one of the pillows down and displayed her butt up to me. She wiggled her booty in front of me, her tail standing up to show how dripping she still was despite the intense first hour.

“Come on, don’t tell me you’re already fucking sleepy,” She teased, clearly wanting to have multiple rounds for this sessions. I scoffed, unwilling to give up this early on and more than happy to give her something to love out of my first time.

“Far from that,” I muttered giddily. “I hope you’re ready to get another pounding.”

“Damn right, I am~!”

And I pushed forward, impaling her before roughly plowing her as roughly as possible. With her face driven onto the pillow, Loona’s moans were muffled, but still loud enough to urge me to go enjoy the control I had over her thanks to the position. She was absolutely submitting herself for the round, and I gave her plenty of reasons to show how thankful I really was for that little act of trust.

I leaned down, thrusting as swiftly as possible as I enjoyed the tightness of her pussy. It was a divine feeling that drove me to seek more and more and, before I knew it, we were both coming once more. Her body went tense at the sudden orgasm, but… I was far from done with her. She yelped in surprise as I pulled her upper body up and then proceeded to lift her by her legs.

“W-What are you- _Oh~?_ _**Oh~!** _”

Yep, I had a feeling she would have loved this. Tail wagging madly, Loona’s entire body was tense as I proceeded to fuck her in that lifted position. She was completely caught off-guard, and I was driven by adrenaline alone in managing to keep this stable position without dropping her back onto the bed. If before the woman had held her moans to half their true intensity, now she was going all out and giving me more reasons to give her proper way to confirm our newest step into a closer bond.

Her words were incoherent, her entire body totally giving up to the pleasure as I proceeded to give her something unforgettable. I felt myself ready to conclude Round 3 a little faster than the previous one, but we were both tired and… I was fairly drained after that. I felt her tighten around the moment I began letting out another fat load of cum into her. She took it happily, her body limping as she felt all her strength falter the moment I was done with that.

I put her back down, and she was instantly curling over my chest while I pulled the covers over us. We fell asleep, two hours burned in the purest form of cuddling before we had to actually pack things up and get out of the building. The room wasn’t meant to be used for too many hours, and we were already ‘risking by going for that long’ from the perspective of the Imp owning the entire place.

The ride back home was fairly calm. I left Loona right in front of her house, the one she shared with her dad/boss, and I was given a full look of the guy himself. A surprisingly tall imp compared to others, two long horns, fairly pissed-looking but not jumping at me the moment I helped his daughter/subordinate at the door.

The hellhound whined about the fact she didn’t like being helped this much, to be taken as a weakling in that moment, but she was too tired to put much resistance when I kept her close and gave her something stable to hold onto until we were standing before the front door. After a quick ‘see you later’ followed by a peck on her cheek, I walked back to the car and started to take the road back to Pentagram City. I promised Uncle Al that I would be back at the manor to eat dinner there, mostly because he wanted someone trustworthy to check the house from time to time.

I wasn’t exactly against that perspective of things and I was tired enough to be more than happy to drop and check by, maybe even eat and sleep there. Today was truly a big day, and I had yet to make sense of a couple of serious bits I would have to keep under consideration while handling my current relationship with Loona.

With nothing much to do at home beyond keeping watch over any issues around and being around the phone of the manor, I ended up going to sleep earlier than usual once I was done with dinner, feeling the genuine need to rest. But as I slumbered quietly and alone in that safe place, I blissfully and unconsciously ignored that someone was watching me from the only window of my room.

_**The figure smiled and then giggled. ‘What a treat, what a troublemaker~,’ They thought eagerly, already planning what to do about me.** _

\-----------------d-d-d-d----------------

**1942, from the pages of Nestor XXX…**

_The manor is still up. I was surprised the entire thing hadn’t been destroyed when both mom and dad died. It wasn’t like I ever took it upon myself to keep the proper papers, and by all means the property should have been taken by the bank after years had gone since it was first abandoned._

_With mother dearest dying the latest in 1937, I really thought nothing could have prevented it to be either sold or destroyed to build a park on its stead. The plot of land it came with was too rich to be wasted, and it was clear that the reason why it hadn’t been taken was tied to something more physical._

_I might not be a police officer, but during my first visit I ended up capturing three youngsters wearing dark cloaks and spitting about a Radio Demon being their Lord or some crap like that. I’ve seen some crazy things in the Pacific, and I have seen how much fanaticism can lead people. Something big was afoot but… I had no clue what it was all about._

_The kids were taken in by the police. Despite the technicalities, I still acted within land owned by me as the sole heir of the entire section of the territory. I spoke with the chief of the police, and the men confirmed that something big was unfolding in the manor proper. I didn’t find anything to corroborate these thoughts, but I decided to pay a visit to the local church to see if I could find guidance on this very matter._

_Father Nicholas was happy to greet me. He had been around from my birth, a kind man with a strong devotion to God. Very nice, very understanding and one of the few people that helped me during my worst years to face my mother’s wrath. Age just didn’t give my dear mother the wisdom to see how horrible of a person she was. Quite the contrary, she found the past too weak and restrained to be followed anymore with such an ‘unruly young man’ she ended up with._

_I could still remember how saddened Alastor was. He wasn’t a bad kid, only one that was unable to make friends. All because mother dearest had to play favorites- All because she believed father thought of me as his best child._

_The fool of a woman. If only she knew how crude and unforgiving father was when he wanted to. Strict and stern, his kindness came in the forms of positive grunts when something he asked from me was done properly._

_A good man, but too rough of a family man. I didn’t shed any tears at his passing, and the same could be said about the woman that declared herself the ‘proper teacher’ of mine to purify my ill thoughts and ambitions._

…

_Those were the memories that made me endure the war. It wasn’t the patriotism that drove me to keep alive during those unpleasant moments. It wasn’t the screaming, it wasn’t the barking of orders, it was the thought that these memories were here to haunt me the moment I was back home. And here I was, mostly unwillingly._

_I needed to find the impostor. I needed to find who was behind this kind of Satanic revival and who wanted me to be back._

_Father Nicholas had much to say. Starting with the fact that a true demon had actually crossed the line between hell and Earth. A monster that could only be beaten through a specific method. He granted me a blessing, one aimed at the gun I had taken home._

_A fancy sword wasn’t gonna do. The devil had to die by something I could use readily and with readiness._

_**And I shan’t show any mercy to this foul creature, no matter the circumstances.** _

\------------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d-----------

**AN**

**Alan lost his V-Card and all the privileges that came out of it. Alas, I think people will be a wee shocked by how quickly Looney got to rush to the main dish and the only thing I can say is that she is that promiscuous. Differently from Molly or AD, Loona’s lust is a little more serious-centered and she isn’t the kind of gal that fucks everything that stands on two legs… but she will fuck if she can trust the one she is fucking.**


	10. Interlude - (Lilith I)

**Interlude - (Lilith I)**

Many things angered Lucifer Magne. Most of those things were somewhat tied to Heaven and the past.

Right in that moment, Lilith doubted that her husband’s foul mood was tied to anything in particular, but to several events that had unfolded during recent times. Starting with their daughter’s interest in starting a hotel to redeem sinners’ souls so Heaven could take them in and thus solve the overpopulation in a peaceful manner, and… the little issue with God.

God was a being that loved the children he was known to as their father, but he was also someone that was quick to ignore the plight of those that were labeled his family if good reasons were raised to make his defense doubtful and misplaced. It came out as a surprise when he himself, joined by the Archangel by his side, came to Hell right to check on Lucifer’s domain and demand explanations.

Sadly for their interest in a fight, the ruler of the demonic realm was quick to present the situation as it was. The Exorcist that was reported dead had perished to his own weapon, which meant that no Sinner was responsible for that killing. It spared about 80% of Hell itself, but it didn’t exclude a couple of individuals that could have used that weapon against an Angel. There was a lot of irritation between both Michael and Lilith’s husband. Both had been at odds even back when Lucifer had his angelic wings, but after his fall, the ruler of Hell had been a major element Miachael despised with a passion.

Lilith wasn’t sure why, nor she cared much about it since she hated Heaven without any question. No matter how much she thought nicely of it when it came as a place where to live in, she still saw it as the ground where she was cast away just because she didn’t want to be Adam’s submitted wife.

One thing led to another, and soon Lucifer followed after her as they came to be in the land that would then become Hell itself. Time has passed but some memories were just burned in the mind. God was the only individual that didn’t seem to just care enough about it. He was too self-centered and absorbed in his role that he just stopped caring as normal beings would. But still, he had a thing to protect what he created from those that he rejected as part of his vision. Which is why he decided to visit, but also why he didn’t jump to conclusions like Michael did when they arrived.

A righteous monster, the deity was also one of reason and logic. Despite demanding faith from his followers, facts and evidence were still the very things that God valued beyond emotions and petty feelings. So, when he was given the chance to study the deceased angel’s body as it was recovered by Lucifer, his annoyance towards him vanished as another emotion washed over his monstrous face.

Fascination. The purest form of wonder and curiosity that manifested in him… and also the worst sight possible anyone could see unravel in his hideous visage. The glee was almost demonic, the chuckle just promised a mix of amusement for him and despair for those that were tied to the exorcists. But instead of regarding Lucifer, to do what it was possibly something tied to Charlie… he merely stood up.

“This… this will be it. I wish to go back home, Michael. I want to see it all unfold from now on~!”

The news was far from good. Even though God didn’t attack them or make any issues regarding what he found in that body, there was still a lingering sense that something was soon going to happen. His powers were mostly unknown and the fact he could tell what had happened by merely touching the body was distressing. It wasn’t something Lucifer knew about, and even Michael looked baffled. A surprise that shouldn’t have even existed to begin with and… yet it was there. He saw something, something so twisted and dangerous that he preferred to watch unfold from Heaven rather than wreak havoc here in Hell.

And that made Lucifer particularly… restless. He wouldn’t say no to cuddling when needed, and Lilith wasn’t worried of him doing something stupid since this wasn’t the first bad situation of this caliber they both had to carefully solve… but it would be silly to say he was going to manage a solution if he remained stuck in the position of absolute power and recognition he couldn’t leave without destabilizing his realm. No, it was time for Lilith to do something she hadn’t done in a long while.

She was going for a lovely and enthusiastic stroll around Pentagram City.

Picking up her old ‘camouflage’ wouldn’t do. The thing has been used for too long, and she knew her daughter would have recognized her if they ended up finding each other during her wandering in the main city of Hell. Lilith had to make something new and… she decided to take inspiration from some magazines she had recently bought to pass some of her time alone while her husband was busy dying over the paperwork.

Short black hair, dark-pink skin, black sclera, green eyes, her horns were shortened and curled in a ram-like style and then her frame was reduced to a more ‘proper height’. She wanted to appear mature, but at the same time… relatable, average. Lilith picked a simple sleeveless black shirt with a tilted red pentagram on its center that showed some of her midriff, a dark-blue mini-skirt and lengthy black pantyhose that reached down to a pair of red boots. A giggle left her lips as she gave a look to herself through her full-body mirror back in the main bedroom.

Sure, she didn’t put much of an effort into it, but there was no doubt this combination fitted just nicely with the plans she had set herself up to. Humming happily as she teleported by one of the safe alleys she would use to enter the city proper without passing by the castle’s main doors, Lilith’s eagerness to explore struck her giddy as she was in the position to actually check for herself how things were going in there.

After just ten minutes of walking around the main streets, the Queen of Hell was thrilled by the particularly calm disposition she found in this part of the city. Sinners were still troublesome, but surprisingly restrained with their quirks compared to what she was more familiar with. It just felt odd to imagine this much civility and lack of… well, trouble in the epicenter of the worst sins, and yet that was actually the case. And it didn’t take long for her to realize the reason why this area of Pentagram City as she heard some of the sinners around bring up the reason.

“Do you think Alan will soon come around?” A girl with a dragon-like head inquired to her equally hideous friend. Both were soon giggling as they both seemed entertained by the name.

“I can’t still believe Alastor had family here in Hell. I believe it’s the first time I heard an Overlord working with a relative of theirs.”

Oh? What an interesting discovery she just made.

She was really intrigued by this detail. An overlord had taken in a relative to work for him? It was absurd to even imagine, mostly because it was difficult for relatives to band up together in hell. It was counterproductive to the mentality of ‘everyone for themselves’ that most sinners had. It clearly was something unique and worth exploring, even just to see how something like this was possible.

The search for him was brief as she ended up finding this ‘Alan’ in one of the open bars at the time. Young, standing at a fair height and hiding some clear muscles under the layer of clothes created by a sport jacket, black pants and normal shoes. His face was covered in a gas mask that was reminiscing of the Great War. He was sitting by the counter, flinching tensely as he was trying to fend off the rather aggressive approaches of a particularly affectionate spider sinner. What made the girl fairly adorable in Lilith’s eyes? The young woman was made of pure white fluff. And Lilith was someone that highly valued those with that cuddle potential.

_I really want to hug that cutie. But… I would probably be taken out for something more than a hug._

Holding back a sad whine, the Queen of Hell carefully reached one of the stools by the counter, standing pretty far from the duo she was most interested in. She listened, carefully so, and took note of what they were saying.

“Just because it’s something that can do good, it doesn’t mean it’s something Loona or I would want.”

“Trust me, you handsome devil, given me ten solid minutes with the pup and she will be asking for eternal threesomes!”

“And that’s why I don’t want you to ever meet her, Molly.”

“Oh?” The spider girl giggled. “Are you afraid I might be right about it?”

“I’m afraid I would have to hold back Loona from murdering you,” Alan answered flatly. “How about we just talk about your visit to your brother?”

“It was nice. I think I overreacted a little bit at times and… did you know that the Princess of Hell can make some delicious cookies~?”

The girl visited her daughter? Now Lilith was even more invested into this eavesdropping. She gave a passing nod to the bartender, ordering for a glass of Poison Red Martini. The demon on the other side merely grunted at her words, quietly going through the process of procuring her the drink she had asked for.

Lilith listened, silently and raptly taken by the odd combination these two had going. While it was clear they were close, they both seemed to be stopping from being serious about it. Molly was the more difficult to notice being against pushing too far, as the girl was doing a fine job using her shameless flirting as a way to cover for her insecurities.

While Alan was being rather reserved and unsure how to handle the visible advances coming from his friend, it all stemmed from the fact he never engaged in a bigamous relationship and… he was a human. It came to her as a shocker as the Queen of Hell decided to resolve her inner question about his true nature, feeling like he wasn’t some sinner spawned by a war-related scenario and her hunch proved to be correct. And even more than that.

Lilith wasn’t sure if this was the individual behind the Exorcist’s death, but the coincidence of his presence here and his odd lack of fright over this domain left her perplexed. Maybe there was something she was just ignoring, like the bond he shared with the Overlord owning this area, the Radio Demon.

The more she thought about it, the more it made sense for someone like Alastor to have unstable relatives… but also those that were careful enough to not step into Lucifer’s peace even by mistake. She needed to study this situation more and… that meant coming out of the palace more than just a few times every year.

That was good news since it meant less from her monotonous routine and even less from hearing about the plight of one of the Goetic Princess that just discovered her husband is into Imp’s dick. The emphasis might seem exaggerated to repeat but… it just stuck to her head after hearing Stolas’ wife lamenting the fact she was left with that ‘shame’ of hers to whine about. Seriously, one would have imagined the once ‘adventurous Stolas’ to be reaping more women’s and men’s hearts after just a few months of marriage.

Lilith could only think as the one reason why he didn’t do so was the baby girl he treasured the most. A pity that both Charlie and Via saw each other barely due to their families’ schedules. It would have been fun to have two children to play around instead of one.

…

“ _**Hello? Lilith?** _”

“Dear, I was thinking about giving Charlie a sibling?”

The call surprisingly enough fell just as she said that. She could never believe it was her husband’s fault, it had to have been an issue with Vox’s network. The Queen just smiled as she wasn’t letting that little delay stop her from trying once more to convince her husband to give her another baby to pamper, spoil and keep herself busy doting on.

Humming happily as she left the bar, she paused just a moment to stare through the glass that offered sight inside and grinned at the little couple she had been spying on. They sure were going to entertain her and bring her some idea to spice things up with her worried husband.

_**Lilith counted herself lucky. If only she knew how much comedy gold she struck by sticking by these two for potential giggles.** _

\-------------d-d-d-d-------------d-d-d-d------------

**AN**

**First interlude! Compared to other stories these are going to be incredibly… rare. Maybe every nine-ten chapters.**

**I have plans for Lilith and Lucy. Let’s just say the Queen is going to remind the domain who has the pants in that family.**

**One hint for next chapter just so you can keep the hype going until next time? Selfie~!**


	11. Pain, of Soul and Body

**Chapter 9: Pain, of Soul and Body**

**Warning:** **This chapters entertained heavy topics such as Suicide and Abuse. I would suggest anyone that isn’t able to read these kinds of subjects to skip the second half of the chapter up until Alan ‘wakes up’. I understand the weight of these matters and I hope I didn’t offend anyone by bringing those topics up in this story.**

It’s been a week since I’ve taken that extra step in the relationship with Loona and… there is definitely something wrong with the denizens of the turf.

At first I thought it was just a passing concern of mine since many would pause, look at me, and spare some conspiratorial whispers about me. It could have been just my ‘fame’ spreading around after so long, but I could tell that there was something else about it. Something that worried me even more since I just couldn’t understand what was going on. Even Molly, despite her little grudge about me ‘having a relationship’ that wasn’t with her, had been clueless about it. And knowing the Spider girl I doubted that she wouldn’t just gloat about this kind of punishment if this was indeed retaliation for that reason.

No, the cause of this circumstance wasn’t something or someone I was aware of on a personal level, and not even asking Uncle Al sortied any result. The Radio Demon mentioned about checking around, but founding nothing unusual beyond the fact that I was more active at work. This very detail, albeit normal to hear by those that put an extra drive in their job, left me even more confused since I didn’t pick up any pace since I started this kind of family business. I searched around, high and low, but I just couldn’t understand what was going on and why nothing unusual seemed to come out of this.

Nothing else came from him, mostly because he was really busy with the Happy Hotel situation and couldn’t offer me much support about it. Still, he mentioned that one of the residents had a particular set of skills that allowed him to work around some bits of technology and he had personally inquired about the chances of altering a cellphone into a device Vox couldn’t track down if I wanted to get one for me to use.

I was really losing my mind… until I received a call from Loona. A call that actually brought some insight over the matter. I realized early on that the hellhound had something big to deliver from the degree of frustration and confusion within her voice.

“ _ **Okay, explain to me right now how the fuck you’ve been using an account on Voxtagram when you told me just yesterday that you didn’t have a phone on you?** _”

Sudden, direct and actually telling that something was really, really wrong.

“That’s because I don’t have one just yet,” I replied with a confused frown. “Like really, I promised you would’ve been the one I would call first since, you know, I don’t trust the social media as I did back in the human world.”

“ _ **...Wait, you actually meant it?** _” She asked with a tiny surprised tone. I did tell her that I would have waited for some help from her before actually diving into that mess and I wasn’t really going to put myself in danger for no apparent reason.

“I promised you that I would, babe,” I reminded her with a calm voice, but still returned to the big topic at hand. “So, what’s this all about?”

“ _ **Someone has created an account with your name just a week ago. It got verified, it has a little less than a hundred posts with pics about stupid shit. Like what you eat for breakfast, lunch or even as a normal snack,**_ ” She started to list out. “ _ **There are also tidbits about the Radio Demon but… I guess those are also false.**_ ”

“Definitely. Even when I used social media back home, I would never be this much of an attention whore. Like really, do you think I would just pause and take pics of what I’m about to eat?”

“ _ **Nope. I guess this son of a bitch is just out to smear on what you have. Could be an enemy,**_ ” Loona said and I nodded in agreement.

“I will check more about this. I will call you once I’m through with this Bullshit and… about this Saturday-”

“ _ **What? Are you trying to back away from it?** _” I could feel the steel in her tone about that possibility and I panicked a little bit.

“Ah!? No! I mean, I… I just wanted to ask if it would be fine if we went a little earlier. Since, you know, I don’t think you mentioned if you ever went to swim at the beach before so I wanted to take you there.”

“ _ **Oh? And maybe you also wanted me to browse around for some swimwear and give you something to peep on?** _”

That was oddly specific, and it caught me off-guard as a blush appeared on my face.

“I-I mean-”

“ _ **Ah!** _ ” She exclaimed in clear amusement, interrupting me with that mirthful reaction. “ _ **I’m kidding. Of course I wouldn’t fucking mind, and… I wouldn’t mind having you peep a little. At the same time, you would have to let me see some of the merchandise in return.**_ ”

I chuckled. “I guess that can be done. Hope you have a quieter day at work.”

“ _ **I fucking pray for this all the time. It’s not a very common circumstance and… see you in a few days, bae.**_ ”

The call ended there but the bad news still remained as now I had to find out what this impostor was actually doing with my image. At this point, I had reason to believe that someone in the turf was wandering around with my appearance and spreading ill information about me by behaving in a certain unflattering way. I was surprised that I didn’t catch on this early on since I started patrolling more aggressively but… maybe there was something that I was missing on this matter. Something tied to the way this impostor moved around in a way to avoid my path.

_Could it be that someone is spying on me?_

It was a possibility that was as grim as useful if I wanted to find the culprit of this issue and I decided to employ a little trick to try and defeat this problem if this was indeed the case. First, I had to discuss this with Molly and then plan out the way I wanted to catch this bastard. The girl was a little surprised about this matter, but she still accepted to help around since she could cash in this favor somehow. I wanted to say no on this matter, but I decided to say that I would have refused anything overtly sexual from her.

That crippled any problematic idea that the pervert could have come up with and yet I could see her plan out something ambitious behind it. I really hoped this was all worth it and it wasn’t just the act of one… but I knew from the fact that the Voxtagram profile had been verified and that meant Vox was somehow implicated into this crazy circumstance. I needed to check for the bastard behind all of this, but I had to do so without getting my ass mauled by any of the Three Vs. Which is why I told Molly to just patrol the area while I remained stuck in a specific section of the turf. If she caught on the bastard, she was to tell me where he or she was and I would have set up a trap in a few days from now. Since we were dealing with rival Overlords, I needed to have Uncle Al’s support on this one, especially with my training in Voodoo and scythe-handling was still far from yielding anything that could be used in active combat.

_I mean, I can temporarily control small animals’ dead bodies if I wanted to, but then my main body would be vulnerable to attacks. And that ain’t something good for intense fighting._

With that idea laid out and with Molly happily taking a small amount of my available money to ‘go shopping’, I decided to take a small visit at the nearby casino and bet some more since I wanted to make up a little more cash on the uncertain end. I was really in need of a stable income that could help me make big plans here in Hell, especially when it came in investing in the turf, so I had to still resort to gambling to get more money in.

It was going to take a while for Molly to be done with her mission, so I didn’t hesitate to take as much time to not take too much money from the casino as possible. I knew the security was already keeping an eye out on me due to Uncle Al, but I really didn’t need to give them a reason to kick me out for draining on their cash so suddenly and so viciously.

I managed to get about the same amount I did last time I visited, not much… but still enough to cover a couple of projects I intended to work on to further improve the situation in this part of Pentagram City. It was a fruitful endeavor but still one that left me without much to do for the rest of the waiting time. Going to one of the bars I felt more safe to keep watch over, I waited for Molly to come around and tell me what was going on. I told her this was going to the place of our rendezvous in case she discovered anything and… nothing happened for about two hours. For a moment I thought she was just wasting time as she had the money to actually be distracted about her real objective and forget about it for a while, but I knew she was going to restrain herself with the promise of having a free way ‘at my heart’ (but possibly more at my body) if she got her task done successfully.

I waited and… then I noticed one of the customers was slowly making their way towards me. It took me just a moment to realize that the sinner was a little female bipedal wish with a lunch bag as her mask.

“M-Mr. Alan? I- I just received a message I think it’s… it’s meant to be for you.”

…What?

I blinked in pure confusion as I heard this, but I still gently took the device off from her shiver hold to glance at the screen. I braced myself for any possible trick about this, but I actually frowned over the message displayed on the screen.

_**I have your little friend with me. She is such a cutie!** _

_**How about you come at the third alley on the right when entering Green Road from Gershwin Street? I promise she will not die if you comply with my tiny request.** _

_**With utter admiration towards the lone H of hell,** _

**V.**

What in the glorious fuck did I just read?

I was caught off-guard by the sudden ultimatum, but even more when I realized that the ‘h’ in that message was definitely referring to my nature… which none of the Overlords should be aware about right now.

How was this possible? I didn’t know. But if I really hoped that it wasn’t actually Valentino behind this message and that something could be done to prevent the worst. I handed back the phone to the kind little sinner, offering a small amount of money to pay for her and her partner’s meals for their helpfulness before taking off to check on what kind of prick did I need to murder.

The stroll wasn’t even a long one as I proceeded to effortlessly take all needed turns through the sidewalks to eventually reach my destination. The alley was mostly deserted, with just a tiny white detail there. An unconscious Molly was leaning her back onto the dead end of the small secondary way. I rushed up to her, checking on her and seeing if she needed further assistance. No bruises, or anything deadly was visible on her body, but she looked incredibly tired and drained.

She groaned, her eyes slowly opening and regaling me with a worried look as she noticed me.

“A-Alan? B-Behind y-you.”

The warning came out a second too late. Before I could even turn around to address the presumed attacker, I felt a pair of cold hands press onto the sides of my head through my mask. My brain went cold as I just heard a mirthful giggle consume my world in darkness, my brain just giving up as unconsciousness took over.

“ _ **Now, let’s see what you are really hiding, little human."** _

\---------d-d-d-d----------

**A few years ago… XXX Hospital.**

Hospitals sucks.

Especially when you are meant to be one of the patients but weren’t allowed to see a fellow wounded family member that was being cured just a few rooms away from yours. I was so tired and the little dosage of painkillers did nothing but leave me cranky as I waited to be given permissions by the doctors to check inside.

The nurses lamented how I should have just waited for my parents to come by before planning out something so ‘risky’ and ‘reckless’. I couldn’t just see the stupidity of just checking on my cousin. I wasn’t attached to any machine, I wasn’t in a life-death situation, and I had been checked thoroughly before being given the green light to leave the room whenever I wanted. If only these morons could listen to their bosses for once. Sure, they did most of the job, but allowing their feelings to get in the way of their job and prevent me from getting through with a really serious situation was enough to get me pissed really fast.

Waiting, sitting, nagging to myself and-

“She is up and willing to talk,” The doctor assigned to her replied with a fake kind tone. “You shoouuld probably tell your girlfriend things are well for you and her.”

“That’s my cousin, doctor Gupta.”

The doctor, having a rather stereotypical way to show his Indian background, hummed and started to walk away at this response, but I caught him muttering to himself about something tied to ‘Alabama’. I didn’t press on the matter, merely giving a look inside and seeing how the actual situation was. The very moment I entered inside that room, my stare was quickly brought to her blue eyes. At first those seemed to lack any intelligence or life. She had been distractedly looking at her sheets until I entered the room. She looked up, her body, filled with bandages, tensing unconsciously at my presence.

Was she afraid? Did I make a mistake coming here now?

It didn’t matter, I repeated inside my head, she had to promise me to not tell the truth to anyone. It was on her best interests, or the scandal would just drag her name in the mud and worse. She had to accept the need to lie or- or things were going to end badly for the two of us.

“Lara,” I said, trying to think up a longer greeting but my throat tightening after just bringing up her name.

A blink, she looked barely there and… yet her body looked mostly well. While a good part of it was hidden under the covers, the few spots I could remember being bruised and cut were now covered in a thin layer of bandages and a few patches here and there. There was a sense of ‘wake up’ in her face as I used her name as the first word to address her with.

“Alan,” Lara returned weakly. There was something definitely missing in her tone that was missing from what I knew was supposed to be always there. No confidence, no mirthfulness, no friendliness- only emptiness and solitude. It felt like I had heard someone speak like this before, but I just couldn’t remember who I was thinking of in that very moment.

“How are you… holding?” I managed to ask, really unsure how to deal with this situation without fucking things up. I was slightly in pain due to the painkillers having yet to come off, I had a terrible migraine that was just screaming at me to just find a free space and fall unconscious onto and… there was a sense of guilt that kept on building up regardless of my best efforts to suppress it.

“I’m… mostly healed. I will be discharged in a couple of days. Just in time to resume my training-”

“T-That’s not what I was talking about,” I forced myself to say, my ire sparked by the faint veil of deception she was trying to coat the entire situation in. “Not- Not the wounds- I meant how long has that shit been happening with that old fuck?”

A hint of fright and surprise appeared on her face, and I felt my heart hurting as I knew I was in no position to ask her this. Not when I was the one that did the worst possible by snapping like that. I could still smell the gasoline, the burning sensation going in my nostrils as I burned that worthless corpse. It was unpleasant, it had to be done, and yet my brain screamed at what I had done.

Why did I allow myself to be involved? I really couldn’t think of it with all the seriousness within me.

Would I have dodged this matter if I had known what was really going on there? No. I couldn’t. Even beyond what I had to endure on a daily basis, this was something I couldn’t just accept. It was a mockery of what I believed, the ideas I had and a complete disruption of my morality.

So much that I had to become a monster to murder a bigger and meaner one. The worst thing? I was enjoying it so much that I could feel the bile still pressing at my throat at the viciousness I had to unleash.

Each bullet filled with hatred and amusement. A paradoxical cocktail of emotions that stormed within my soul as I filled that pig with lead as I judged his life worthless. One mistaken walk to school in the late afternoon was to blame. I wasn’t even planning to check on Lara, no- I was trying to retrieve the switchblade that the vice-principal had taken from me earlier yesterday. A little ‘toy’ that wasn’t meant to be under my ownership. I was too ‘irresponsible with it’ even though I never used it beyond merely showing it to others. She didn’t even know what was the real purpose of the blade, or things would have been worse than just a tiny detention and the removal of that ‘destructive object’.

Entering the school after classes’ hours wasn’t that difficult. I knew the janitors that kept watch over the building up until later at night and he allowed me to get in to retrieve some math work I had left behind due to how distracting the day had been. I was relieved to have this kind of connection, one of the few meaningful ones I could depend on. I wandered around until I arrived at the office of the old bat.

The switchblade was quickly retrieved, and I was making my way through the secondary exit since the janitor was being busy and couldn’t open the main one at the time I was done. There was a backdoor exit that could be forced open just temporarily so I could leave without burdening anyone. I proceeded through the south area of the school, unaware of what was unfolding in the gym section. By the time I was a few steps away from my way out, I paused at the door handle as I heard the noises. At first I thought some morons were around and yelling like madmen but… I actually felt like some of the screaming was actually familiar. Too familiar, I thought once more as I began checking on what it was all about.

It was stupid curiosity that eventually unveiled a mistaken view of mine, which matched with those of the other students and people that knew of Lara, about the ‘golden girl’ herself. The shiny smile, the pretty gazes, the beauty that had many morons howl her way like a bunch of complete fools… it wasn’t there as I looked inside the gym classroom.

The massive place where I was constantly reminded of my limited skills when it came to sports was now the setting for something far more horrifying and infuriating. My lungs stopped working, my sight turned clear and my brain went blank as I saw a struggling form fighting against a bigger one. Numerous pieces of clothes were lying on the floor, shredded by violence that was unnatural to this place and… and I recognized the frame of the attacker.

Couch Calderon was one of the oldest teachers here at school. Fat, ugly, really despised by many due to his lack of professionalism and the blatant fact that his current stay at school was mostly guaranteed by his friendship with the principal. He would be caught ogling at girls of various ages, but never seen doing more than staring. An outright bastard but one that had his butt covered in recommendations from his old friends in the sport businesses.

Here he was, punching violently at the struggling girl beneath his weight. Her shrieks were clearer to my ears, and I caught on some sight of her crying face as it was getting pummeled with such ferocity. I… I actually felt my body trembling at the absurdity of the situation, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I silently walked closer to the scene, unwilling to concede that this was the truth. And yet it was.

My throat ached and my sight burned as I made the terrible discovery of the darkest secret behind my successful cousin’s rise to popularity. Lara sobbed loudly, unable to last for too long under that obscene amount of abuse.

I paused by the bench with the coach’s bag, my stare pulled away as I noticed something gleaming from it. Something I was familiar with as I quietly pulled out a revolver. Small caliber, it was one of the first things I tested out when I was given a taste of it through the weapons’ training course. Not reliable in long distances, but deadly in short distances when it came to big targets. I put it in my jacket’s pocket, failing to notice that the safe wasn’t on.

At this point, the shock had settled and the truth had come out of it. Anger emerged in a rare moment of true raw fury from within me. Despite my reluctance to give a damn about family in general, I just couldn’t allow this to happen- no more, I screamed inside my head. **No MORE!**

A blink, I had plunged my knife into the man’s neck, just below his throat. A miscalculated hit, I should have moved into his weakest spot but… I hesitated. I was no killer, even then I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. And yet, the only thing I got was my element of surprise gone and a fright that forced me to back away as the panicking teacher realized what happened. Pain, fear of going to jail or worse- that mix of dread fueled his need to eliminate any proof of his wrongdoings. Despite his size, the coach stood up quickly, but he slowed down the moment I pulled his gun on him.

The switchblade was still embedded deep into his upper back, and I had to rely on the revolver as the only mean to survive that encounter. Gulping nervously, I finally noticed the safe wasn’t turned on and I could really use the bullets within the chamber.

“Y-You have to stop. I’m- I’m not joking.”

He didn’t listen. I saw him rush against me, regardless of the dangerous situation he was in. A normal person, someone that would have still had the common sense to surrender, would have done so now to avoid death. Yet I saw it in his eyes, the need to murder, the need to eliminate the evidence.

It was the last thing I needed to finally snap. The one thing that finally had me smiling as I stared at the fool risked his existence to… save it. So worthless, so unimportant… I felt emboldened by this decision as I felt a wide smile creep in as I unleashed three shots. The monster trembled at the precision of the bullets. One slammed into his left leg, sending him tripping down. The second one reached his lower back, just below where the knife was still stuck in and… the third one…

“P-Please- I didn’t mean to- I-I ‘m sorry.”

A chuckle left my lips, it felt so natural and yet so wrong of me. “Sorry? Coachie, what are you talking about? You are not sorry about the monster you are, aren’t you? You’re sorry that you got caught being a naughty little piggy.”

This isn’t… me. I- I can’t be like this. I just- I just couldn’t-

“I-I’m not-”

“Squeal for me, piggy. I want to hear your real voice about it. _**So squeal for me!** _”

He started to do so. It was… hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing even though I was so angry at him. And then… I shot him one last time through his skull. He expected to be paid for his submission, but what he got was the same rotting deal he was meant to have as the bastard behind this kind of abuse. My chuckles didn’t last long as he died before me, not when my stare moved to the still-awake and currently shocked glance coming from Lara. Her underwear, bras and panties, were torn but not completely off from her, offering just a form of chastity despite the lack of other clothes. I was disgusted by this- by my actions, by him, and by… me.

My brain started to ache at that point. Instinct began kicking in as I realized I had to hide away the body or I would have been caught. I rushed to pick the body, ignoring the frightened blue eyes staring at me as I took the corpse out of the secondary exit and… down one of the manholes that directly led to the sewers. It was a place that was barely used and the best place where to burn something of this size.

Canisters of gasoline and a few matches were easy to recover from the storage of the abandoned gas station around the corner. The problem was actually getting the floor clean of the stains of blood and any damage from the third bullet. Luckily for me, the floor was already damaged, so it should have been easy to rule out this kind of issue to something tied to the old floor or something like that.

I spared just a glance as I saw the corpse burning fiercely, with me having used just a tiny layer of gasoline to get it to continue until it was all charred and it remained just bones. I also threw the canister into the dumpster near the old gas station, thus preventing any evidence to come up by the time the body was discovered.

When I was walking back in the crime scene, I saw that she was still there. Lara hadn’t moved a single step away from her petrified posture. She looked at me as I returned, a degree of uncertainty within her mind as I approached her. I gulped nervously, almost choking on my own bile and spit.

“I-I will call the police. Anonymously. I will say that I saw some delinquents there, trying to hurt you- that you managed to send them running before they could have done- done the worst.”

She merely listened, giving no hints that she was genuinely going to keep up with this story. Maybe I went too far, maybe she knew this was too much. I approached her closer, I saw her posture tense up in clear panic, but she didn’t shy away as I crouched down and pulled her even closer. I gave her a hug, but I wasn’t sure if this was more for her or for me. If this was a selfish or a selfless action.

“I-I’m sorry, Lara,” I muttered, pouring part of the pain I was in within my voice. I felt her calm down just enough for me to move out of the hug and deliver a tiny kiss on her forehead.

“W-We will talk later.”

And so it happened. I was already in the hospital when she was found and dropped there. The police were going to wait until she had recovered from the attack before questioning her. Her parents were definitely going to try to add a bodyguard or something, but in the end nothing serious against the aggressor was going to be made. It would destroy her reputation as a ‘shining model for female students’. That wouldn’t do for dear mommy and daddy that cared nothing else but their daughter’s successes.

“Two years,” Lara replied to my question, her tone lacking any of the despair it had been filled with until that moment. The truth did indeed set her free. “He said that he had contacts. He knew people. He promised me to have a rising career as a star in whatever sport I wanted. I didn’t ask mom, I thought she trusted him well enough for me to trust him in return. I should have questioned my- my judgment before accepting.”

“You are not to fault,” I replied, but she looked down to her sheets once more, her hands turning into ferocious fists. Anger aimed at herself from the looks of it.

“I-I could have avoided all this stupidity. I could- I could have stopped you from hurting yourself.”

…

“What?” I asked softly, my voice suddenly missing. “What did you just… say?”

“You shouldn’t have been put in the situation of saving me. I- I didn’t deserve it. I was just… just a fool and-”

“S-Stop it!” I whispered furiously, barely holding my own irritation at the bullshit I was hearing. “I-I don’t know who the fuck said you had a right to be put above me and decide to pity what I had to do. Do you think you are some fucking genie or something, Lara? Answer me!”

I snapped, but this one was more controlled – more normal. I saw her tense up, her blue eyes widening in pure fright at the remembrance of what happened back at school and… and I actually stopped.

_What am I even doing right now?_

“D-Did you mean it? Back then you said that- that you were sorry. If- If not because you saved me, why did you feel- feel sorry?” She asked, confused by my reaction more than else.

…

“B-Because you had to see it. You had to see something so horrible, so vicious, all when you didn’t need to see this.”

…

An empty chuckle came out of her lips. “A-And who gave you the right to- to decide to pity me or not?”

I flinched at the use of my words, but I just stared at her, and she stared back at me.

“Alan?”

I nodded. “Yes?”

…

“When did you start hurting yourself?”

That query came in without warning and it caught me surprised as I gave her a big frown. “W-What?”

“Your left arm. I… I saw the cuts when you were hugging me.”

I felt incredibly bothered by this since it was the first time someone actually noticed those.

“N-Nothing. It was just- scratches while falling somewhere.”

“Liar,” Lara judged rightfully.

I stared at her tensely, feeling rather unwilling to speak up about it. Yet, as I thought about the circumstances we were in, my plight felt less decisive and horrible than the one she had to go through. While I could just flip the birdie to the problems related to mom and dad, Lara couldn’t do the same with hers. Her parents were what built her, and one wrong step was going to ruin her for good. She just couldn’t afford to be rebellious, not without a backup plan to get through this kind of shitstorm.

“I guess… It's because I wanted to remember that it can just be so easy to do it. To use the knife to cut through skin,” I answered darkly. “One move, and it would be all over.”

…

“But?” She cleverly noticed that I was withholding something and I nodded.

“But I stopped caring about stopping for a long time now. At this point, I just allow my life to go as long as it has to go. Maybe I will live long enough to become a demented old man that is going to need a couple of nurses to change my diaper, or maybe I will die hit by a car or a truck.”

…

“Alan. Can you… come closer for… just a moment?”

I was surprised by the request, but I still complied to it. I had a slight hint of what she was planning to do but… I allowed her to get through this. The hug was expected, but I didn’t predict what came next. The embrace tightened and I felt her sob while in it.

“A-Alan?”

I merely hummed, keeping close to her.

“I-I’m sorry… that you had to hurt yourself for… for what I did.”

“You’re not to fault. Stop doing that,” I muttered quietly, unwilling to entertain these dark thoughts anymore. “Promise me… to not think like a moron about this. You’re not the one I fault for this.”

…

“I-I will try,” She whispered back. “A-And thank you.”

I sighed, feeling the world crumbling around us as this _memory was finally collapsing._

“No Lana. Thank you.”

_The memories would then crumble as I could remember how this would then go. We would start talking with each other more, burying the war hatchet for good and start making progress in rebuilding what was lost. In the process, I gained a way to make friends and establish a shitty but still stable reputation at school, while Lara grew ‘more humane’ to those that competed against her. Jovial, genuinely friendly- she became even more popular by becoming more relatable after the accident._

_The corpse would be found during the last months of my fifth years. The police would draw no result out of it due to how long it has been there, and nobody wanted to genuinely know what happened to him. I was spared from being haunted by that ghost from the past and-_

**And I blinked awake, only now realizing that I was choking a demon.**

The girl looked like a slim doll with slightly gray-brown skin. She had velvet, maroon, and white hair that were all tied into pigtails with black and white lace hair ties holding those up. Her eyes, with white irises and red scleras, were giving me a panicked look as I pressed her on the crater I created with her indentation within the close wall of the alley.

Her tea-length dress, a combination of black, velvet, and white colors with short puffed sleeves that had a few heart designs and velvet lace at the bottom, was slightly tattered from what looked to have been a vicious brawl. Dread was within her expression as I seemed so close to just snap her neck with the choke hold I had over her throat. The magic that had fueled my berserk state was over, and I could tell that I had stressed too much the crystal.

Still feeling the memory burning close to my thoughts, I could tell this was the bitch behind this ambush. This had to be Velvet, the one that Uncle Al had told me to not mess with or I would have been burned in the long-term. She seemed so docile, so fragile at the moment… and I let her go. She didn’t move, merely shivering as I walked up to pick up the still-sleeping Molly and make my way out of the alley without saying a single word. While some would have just screamed at this being a foolish move for me to do, the truth was that my body was close to falling apart and I needed to get back home as quickly as possible. Blood was pouring out of my lips, my arms and legs were burning terribly at the overuse of magic and… and I felt my head hurting like Hell.

I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t last too long the moment she realized I was no longer the threat but a frail pest for her to kill. So I left Velvet to think about what happened today and… then I would deal with her another day when I was done with almost dying there.

_**And as I turned on the car with Molly on the rear passenger’s seats, I swiftly bolted with the vehicle back to the manor. Too tired, too frustrated, too distraught.** _

\-----------d-d-d-d-----------d-d-d-d--------

**AN**

**I’m not feeling in the mood to say anything here…**


End file.
